NOV  6  1 

BR  121  .T56  1918 
Thomas,  James  Bishop,  b. 

1871. 
Religion  —  its  prophets  and 

its  false  prophets 


RELIGION— ITS  PROPHETS  AND 
FALSE  PROPHETS 


*&&& 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK   •    BOSTON   •    CHICAGO  -    DALLAS 
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MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON   •    BOMBAY   •    CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


RELIGION— ITS  PROPHETS 
AND    FALSE    PROPHETS 


NOV 

BY 
JAMES  BISHOP  THOMAS,  Ph.D. 

PROFESSOR  OF  SYSTEMATIC  THEOLOGY,  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF 
THE  SOUTH,  SEWANEE,  TENNESSEE 


J^eto  gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1918 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  191 8 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.    Published  May,  1918 


DEDICATED 

TO 
DOROTHEA  AND  LESLYE  IDA 

TO 
THE  MEMORY  OF  CLARE  ROSAMOND 

TO 
VIRGINIA  ST.  JOHN  AND  MYRA  AMELIA 

OUR  CHILDREN 


A   PERSONAL  WORD 

The  message  in  this  book  is  one  that  has  been 
seeking  expression  since  the  author's  Seminary 
days  at  the  Episcopal  Theological  School  at  Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts — more  than  twenty  years 
ago. 

Owing  to  the  self-sacrificing  co-operation  of  his 
mother — early  left  a  widow — he  was  enabled  to  re- 
ceive his  preparation  for  the  ministry.  It  came  at 
a  time  when  the  sense  of  the  social  implications  of 
Christianity  was  beginning  to  be  quickened  and 
Prof.  Nash  was  expressing  to  his  pupils  those  views 
later  embodied  in  his  "Genesis  of  the  Social  Con- 
science." After  three  years  of  seemingly  fruitless 
preaching  of  the  social  gospel,  the  sympathetic 
furtherance  of  his  wife  enabled  the  author  to  spend 
three  years  in  Europe  in  further  study. 

Germany  was  selected  as  offering  the  best  oppor- 
tunities. The  problem  he  proposed  was — "How  is 
the  economic  and  social  order  to  be  reformed  ac- 
cording to  the  Christian  principle  of  the  law  of 
service?"  So  for  two  semesters  at  Berlin  and  for 
two  and  a  half  more  at  Halle  the  author  studied 
economics  under  distinguished  teachers.  Ger- 
many had  promised  much.  The  science  of  "Sozial- 
politik"  was  developing  a  program  for  the  material 
betterment  of  the  masses  from  above;  the  Social 


viii  A  Personal  Word 

Democratic  party  proposed  a  program  for  complete 
political  and  economic  democratization.  Between 
the  two  stood  the  mediating  political  party  of  Pas- 
tor Friedrich  Naumann  which  was  proposing  a  social 
reformation  on  the  principles  of  the  Gospel. 

But  while  the  author  was  in  Germany  a  reaction- 
ary change  was  in  process.  Naumann  returned 
from  the  Palestine  trip  on  which  he  had  been  the 
personal  guest  of  the  Kaiser — changed  from  a 
Christian  Socialist  to  a  Pan-Germanist.  The  the- 
ologians were  reaching  the  conclusion  that  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  belonged  as  a  whole  to  a  passed 
age.  Johannes  Weiss  thought  he  had  discovered 
that  Jesus  represented  the  fanatical  Apocalyptism 
of  His  Own  times  and  people.  Harnack  partly 
shared  this  view  and  was  becoming  convinced  that 
in  the  pursuit  of  the  tasks  of  Kultur  the  program  of 
Jesus  must  be  modified  in  the  interest  of  a  modern 
German  morality.  Papers  read  at  the  Evangelical 
Social  Congresses  showed  this  trend  away  from  the 
acceptance  of  the  authority  of  Jesus  in  social  and 
political  matters.  He  was  explained  away  as  a 
"Beautiful  Spirit"  rather  than  as  a  practical  Leader 
of  men. 

These  tendencies  were  felt  by  the  author  and  led 
him  to  give  especial  attention  to  the  critical  study 
of  the  " eschatological  problem,"  with  the  result 
that  he  reached  conclusions  diametrically  opposed  to 
those  that  were  then  seeking  acceptance.  (See 
Chapters  V,  VI  and  VII.)  He  was  led  to  these 
studies  as  a  direct  outcome  of  his  interest  in  ascer- 


A  Personal  Word  ix 

taining  how  far  the  teachings  of  the  historic  Jesus 
are  in  contact  with  modern  social  needs. 

While  rector  of  St.  Andrew's  Church  in  Roches- 
ter, New  York,  the  author  became  associated  with 
the  Rev'd.  Dr.  Paul  Moore  Strayer  (now  President 
of  the  Social  Service  Commission  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church),  author  of  the  Reconstruction  of  the 
Church,  and  Prof.  Walter  Rauschenbusch — the  well- 
known  teacher  and  author  of  works  on  the  Social 
Message  of  Christianity — in  the  movement  known 
as  ''The  People's  Sunday  Evening."  From  the 
stimulus  of  this  association  this  work  has  profited 
greatly.  Prof.  Rauschenbusch's  trenchant  criti- 
cisms caused  the  book  to  be  rewritten  twice  after 
the  author  thought  it  ready  for  publication. 

The  call  to  teach  in  the  Theological  Department 
of  the  University  of  the  South  brought  opportu- 
nities of  association,  and  the  academic  vacations 
afforded  the  leisure,  needed  to  give  this  work  its 
present  form.  To  his  colleagues  of  the  Theological 
Faculty  he  is  indebted  for  stimulating  criticisms  and 
helpful  suggestions.  He  owes  his  acquaintance  with 
the  writings  of  Prof.  Howison  (see  Chapter  VI)  to 
Prof.  T.  P.  Bailey,  and  at  the  instigation  of  Prof.  H.  L. 
Jewett  Williams  (at  present  serving  as  Captain  in 
the  United  States  forces)  he  restudied  the  Synoptic 
problem.  Prof.  John  M.  McBryde,  Jr.,  head  of  the 
English  Department  of  the  University  and  Editor 
of  the  Sewanee  Review,  corrected  faulty  expres- 
sions and  suggested  improvements  in  style. 

As  the  work  progressed  and  up  to  the  time  of  its 


^ 


x  A  Personal  Word 

completion  great  practical  assistance  was  received 
from  the  author's  friend  and  former  parishioner, 
Miss  D.  Gurnee  of  Rochester,  New  York,  who  gen- 
erously placed  her  skill  as  a  stenographer  and  type- 
writer at  his  disposal. 

James  Bishop  Thomas. 

Sewanee,  Tenn.,  December  9,  19 17. 


CONTENTS 

Introduction.  The  Professional  vs.  the  Amateur. 
§1.  Temptations  to  Professionalism  in  Religion.  §11. 
Opportunities  for  Exploitation  of  Religion.  §111.  Proph- 
ets, the  Foes  of  the  Religious  Exploiters.  §IV.  The 
Conflict  in  Old  Testament  Passes  into  History  of  Chris- 
tianity. §V.  The  Object  of  this  Book.  §VI.  Jesus  and 
the  Prophetic  Religion.  §VII.  Rival  Claimants  to  the 
Sanction  of  Jesus'  Authority.  §VIII.  Our  Subject  Is  Vital 
to  the  World's  Greatest  Issue  Today.  .  .  .Pages  xvii-xxii 

Chapter  I.  Rise  of  the  Jewish  Priesthood.  Intro- 
ductory. §1.  Religion  of  the  Nomad  Semites.  §11.  A 
Lay  Religion.  §111.  Sources  of  the  Prophetic  and 
Priestly  Religions  —  Pia  Fraus.  §IV.  Rise  of  Priestly 
Caste Pages  1-12 

Chapter  II.  The  Rise  of  Prophetism.  §1.  Its 
Hereditary  Origin.  §11.  Its  Conflict  with  Its  Oppo- 
site. §111.  The  Resulting  Type  of  Prophetic  Conscious- 
ness   Pages  13-28 

Chapter  III.  Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic. 
§1.  The  Value  of  the  Human  Individual  Discovered 
through  Mystical  Experience.  §11.  History,  the  Field 
for  the  Working  Out  of  God's  Plan.  §111.  Religious  and 
Ethical  Universalism.  §IV.  The  Unity  of  God  and  Con- 
sequent Solidarity  of  Mankind.  §V.  The  Divinely  Ap- 
pointed Historic  Destiny  of  Mankind  —  The  Reign  of 
God  on  Earth  —  Messianic  Era 29-44 


xii  Contents 

Chapter  IV.  The  Priesthood  Establishes  a 
Monopoly  and  Developes  a  Legalistic  Ethic  and 
Priestly  Theology  —  Priestly  Exactions.  §1.  Amorite 
Shrines  Basis  of  Israelite  Priestly  Colleges  —  Exploita- 
tion of  Judicial  Functions  and  Court  Influence.  §11. 
The  Deuteronomic  Conspiracy.  §111.  The  False  Proph- 
ets and  Jeremiah.  §IV.  The  Fruits  of  the  Exile.  §V. 
The  Jewish  Theocracy  Supplants  the  Davidic  Monarchy. 
§VI.  Post  Exilic  Theology  and  Ethic.  §VII.  Priestly 
Emoluments Pages  45-64 

Chapter  V.  The  Apocalypses  Unmasked  —  Polit- 
ical Oppression  as  Historic  Background  —  Gospel  of 
Despair — Priestly  Literary  Devices.  §1.  Priestly  The- 
ology of  the  Apocalypses.  §11.  The  Persian  and  Jewish 
Apocalypses  Compared.  §111.  Importance  of  True 
Interpretation  of  the  Phrase  "Son  of  Man"  in  Daniel. 
§IV.  The  Apocalyptic  "Will  to  Exploit".  .Pages  65-75 

Chapter  VI.  The  Theology  of  Jesus  —  Introduc- 
tory —  The  Critical  Problems  —  Affinity  with  Prophetic 
Theology.  §1.  Jesus'  Estimate  of  the  Value  of  the 
Human  Individual  —  The  Soul  of  a  Child  —  The 
"Least  Brother"  — The  Outcast  and  Lowly  — The 
Gentile  —  Contrast  with  Contemporary  Jewish  Opinion 
—  "Son  of  Man"  —  Man  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  —  Man 
Greater  than  the  Temple  —  Prof.  Howison  Quoted  — 
Rejection  of  the  Quest  for  Personal  Salvation.  §11. 
Jesus  Holds  to  Prophetic  Interpretation  of  History  as 
Field  for  Working  Out  God's  Plan  for  Mankind.  §111. 
The  Universalism  of  Jesus.  §IV.  Jesus'  Theology  Con- 
trasts with  Apocalyptic  Theology.  §V.  Jesus  and  the 
Future  World  Community  —  Views  of  Schweitzer  and 
K.  Lake  Examined  —  Jesus'  Ethics  and  World  Pro- 
gram   Pages  76-101 


Contents  xiii 

Chapter  VII.  "The  Eschatological  Problem"  — 
Critical  Considerations.  §1.  Early  Traces  of  Jesus' 
Anti-Apocalyptic  Polemic  —  Quest  for  External  "Signs" 
Condemned  —  "The  Sign  of  Jonah"  Signifies  Repent- 
ance —  An  Internal  Moral  Sign  —  The  Developmental 
Doctrine  in  "Q."  §11.  The  Engrafting  of  Apocalyptic 
Matter  Begins  with  the  Disciples  —  Peter's  Christus 
Futurus  —  The  "Apocalypse  of  Jesus."  §111.  "The 
Great  Apocalyptic  Discourse"  (Mk.  XIII)  —  H.  B. 
Streeter  Quoted  —  Growth  of  the  Apocalyptic  Tradi- 
tion in  Matthew  and  Luke.  §IV.  Matthean  "Eschatol- 
ogizing"  of  Authentic  Sayings  of  Jesus  —  Streeter  — 
The  "Apocalyptic  Residuum" Pages  102-119 

Chapter  VIII.  The  Historic  Jesus  —  The 
Prophet  Messiah.  §1.  The  Beginnings  of  Christological 
Development:  i,  Jesus  Appears  as  Prophetic  Herald  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God;  ii,  Jesus  Preached  as  the  "Messiah 
That  Is  to  Come";  iii,  Retrospectively  Regarded  as 
Made  the  Messiah  at  His  Baptism;  iv,  At  His  Birth; 
v,  The  Pauline  "Man  from  Heaven";  vi,  The  Eternal 
Logos,  Messiah,  The  Crucial  Problem,  The  Messianic 
Self-Consciousness  of  Jesus  as  Revealed  by  Modern 
Research.  §11.  The  Career  of  the  Prophet  Messiah  — 
Kinship  with  Insurgent  Prophets  —  Denounces  the 
Exploiters  — ■  Derides  Ceremonial  Righteousness  and 
Legalism  —  Proclaims  the  Righteous  Community  —  His 
Campaign  Against  the  Temple  Cult  —  His  Messianic 
Claim  Revealed  in  the  "Cleansing  of  the  Temple." 
§111.  The  Program  of  Jesus — His  Own  Office  as  Ini- 
tiator of  the  Reign  of  God  —  The  "Johannine  Passage" 
—  The  Militant  Quality  of  His  Mission  —  The  Principle 
of  Self-Sacrifice  —  His  Absolute  Ethic  —  The  Victory  of 
the  Cross Pages  120-148 


xiv  Contents 

Chapter  IX.  The  Followers  of  Jesus  Substitute 
a  Messianic  Cult  for  His  Brotherhood  of  the 
Kingdom  —  Introductory  —  The  Initial  Defeat  of  the 
Program  of  Jesus  through  the  Tragic  Misunderstanding 
of  His  Earliest  Followers.  §1.  Reversion  of  the  Jeru- 
salem Church  to  the  Apocalyptic  Delusion  and  Loss  of 
Prophetic  Religion  and  Ethic  —  McGiffert  Quoted  — 
Peter  and  His  Group  Practically  Abandon  the  Teacher's 
Cause.  §11.  The  "Hellenistic  Deacons"  Are  the  True 
Interpreters  of  Jesus'  Doctrine  —  Contrast  to  the  Apos- 
tles —  Prophetic  Elements  in  the  Discourse  of  Stephen 

—  A  Prophet  Martyr  —  And  in  the  Discourse  of  Philip 

—  Influence  on  Antioch  and  so  on  the  Antiochene 
Prophets  —  Barnabas  and  Saul.  §111.  Paul  —  His  At- 
tempted Synthesis  of  Opposing  Religious  Elements  — 
Influence  on  the  Expansion  of  the  Cult  —  Paul,  a 
"Hellenizing  Syncretist"  —  Fails  to  Understand  the 
Historic  Significance  of  Jesus  —  His  Affinity  with  the 
"Mystery  Cults"  —  Percy  Gardner  Quoted  —  The  Cult 
Principle  Opposed  to  the  Universal  Type  of  Religion  — 
Royce's  Estimate  Criticized  —  Ephesian  Christianity,  in 
the  Fourth  Gospel  —  Metamorphoses  the  Universal 
Religion  of  the  Prophet-Messiah  into  a  Christo-Centric 
Mystery  Cult Pages  149-168 

Chapter  X.  The  Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting 
Ecclesiasticism  —  Introductory  —  External  Organiza- 
tion and  Spread  of  the  Jesus  Cult.  §1.  The  Ministry  in 
the  Gentile  Churches  "  Charisnatic "  —  The  Didache 
and  Exploiting  "Prophets."  §11.  The  Oligarchical  Type 
of  Organization  —  "Heresies"  —  Ignatius  and  the  Mon- 
archical Episcopate.  §111.  Growth  of  a  "Clerical  Con- 
sciousness"—  "Bishops,  Presbyters  and  Deacons"  — 
Growing  Opportunities  for  Exploitation.     §IV.  The  Age 


Contents  xv 

m 

of  Cyprian  —  Roman  Legalism  Grafted  upon  Jewish 
Legalism  —  Revival  of  Old  Testament  Ceremonialism 
and  Hierarchical  Notions  —  Harnack  Quoted  —  Cyprian 
and  the  Priests'  Code  —  He  Becomes  Chief  Agent  in 
Leading  the  Catholic  Church  into  Complete  Apostasy 
from  the  Religion  of  Jesus.  §V.  The  Church  now  Ripe 
for  the  Exploiter.  §VL  Through  Its  Deal  with  Con- 
stantine  the  Church  Enters  upon  a  Profitable  Career  of 
Exploitation  Not  Yet  Ended  —  Appendix  to  Chapter  X 

—  Quoted  from  Henry  Osborn  Taylor.  .  .Pages  169-190 

Chapter  XL    Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets 

—  Introductory  —  Protestants  Against  the  View  of  that 
Exploitation  is  a  High  Type  of  Piety.  §1.  Arnold  of 
Brescia.  §11.  Francis  of  Assisi.  §111.  Dante  —  Maz- 
zini  Quoted  —  Marsiglio  of  Padua  and  John  of  Jandun. 
§IV.  Prophetic  Movement  in  England  —  William  Lang- 
land  —  His  Prophetic  Allegory  —  John  Wycliffe  —  The 
Peasant  Priests  —  Thorold  Rogers  Quoted.  §V.  The 
Prophets  of  Bohemia  —  Palacky  Quoted.  § VI.  The 
Prophetic  Career  of  Savonarola  —  Vilari  Quoted.  §VII. 
The  Oxford  Reformers  of  1496 Pages  19 1-2 13 

Chapter  XII.  The  So-Called  Reformation.  In- 
troductory —  Predominant  Influence  of  Paulinism  Re- 
stricts Reformation  to  the  Cult  —  Excludes  Reforma- 
tion of  the  Social  Order.  §1.  Martin  Luther.  §11. 
Calvin.  §111.  The  English  Reformation  Perpetuates 
the  Exclusive  Cult  Idea  by  Preservation  and  Exaltation 
of  the  Episcopate  —  Perpetuation  of  System  of  Exploita- 
tion —  The  Martin  Mar-Prelate  Charges  —  Bishops 
Held  in  Contempt  by  Elizabeth  —  Froude  Quoted. 
§IV.  " Anabaptists"  Recover  the  True  Type  of  Chris- 
tianity and  Attempt  to  Initiate  the  Social  Reign  of  God 

—  Persecuted   by    Protestants   and    Catholics   Alike  — 


xvi  Contents 

Heath  Quoted  —  The  Moravian  Community  —  The 
Program  and  Spirit  of  Jesus  Again  Quenched  in  a  Bap- 
tism of  Blood  and  Fire Pages  214-237 

Chapter  XIII.  The  Recovery  of  a  Lost  Chris- 
tianity. §1.  Present  Crisis  in  Conflict  Between  the 
Exploiters  and  Prophets  of  Religion.  §11.  The  Stake  — 
Is  the  Present  Hell  on  Earth  to  Continue  or  the  Reign 
of  God  to  Triumph.  §111.  Jesus  Still  the  Spiritual  Guide 
and  Leader  of  the  Forces  of  the  Reign  of  God.  §IV.  The 
Lesser  Cults  Must  be  Dethroned  and  Universal  Chris- 
tianity Restored,  This  the  Only  Practical  Hope  of 
World  for  Deliverance  from  Perpetual  Wars  —  Hope 
from  those  Outside  Historic  Christianity.  §V.  The 
Present  Futility  of  Existing  Cults;  They  Could  Help  by 
Losing  Their  Lives  for  Christ's  Sake  and  the  Gospel's  — 
Royce  Quoted  —  Possibilities  of.  §VI.  Education. 
§VII.  Family  and  Parish  Community.  §VIII.  The 
Lord's  Prayer.  §IX.  Personal  Immortality  and  the  Social 
Order.  §X.  Conclusion  —  The  Supreme  Need  —  Uni- 
versal Repentance  and  Reorganization  of  Individual 
and  Social  Life  Under  the  Guidance  of  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus Pages  238-256 


INTRODUCTION 

The  highest  types  of  human  activity,  spiritual, 
mental  or  physical,  proceed  from  an  inward  con- 
straint as  their  sufficient  motive.  Aspiration  seeks 
attainment;  thought  impels  to  expression;  the 
idea  becomes  the  architect  of  its  own  enduring  hab- 
itation. Virtue  is  not  only  its  own  reward  but  is 
its  alone  satisfying  reward.  It  craves  no  other  pay. 
It  resents  the  offer  of  material  reward  as  an  affront 
— as  imputing  a  hireling's  motives  to  a  true  prophet. 

But  besides  his  incentives  to  creative  or  co-crea- 
tive activity  man  has  secondary  and  conditional 
requirements.  These  are  commonly  called  the  "  ne- 
cessities of  life."  They  are  the  necessities  of 
physical  life.  The  higher  forms  of  activity — re- 
ligious, mental  and  artistic — often  attract  material 
rewards — and  as  these  material  things  are  required 
— and  are  often  very  gratifying — the  man  is  under 
the  constant  temptation  to  regard  the  higher  forms 
of  activity  as  the  legitimate  means  of  procuring  the 
material  satisfactions.  He  is  moved  to  make  mer- 
chandise of  the  commodities  of  the  spirit  and  if  he 
yields  he  becomes  a  false  prophet. 

A  subtle  simony  becomes  his  pursuing  demon. 
He  has  made  his  compact  with  Mephistopheles  and 
has  sold  his  own  soul.  The  artist  turns  peddlar  and 
exchanges  his  spiritual  integrity  for  the  flesh  pots; 


xviii  Introduction 

the  philosopher  turns  sophist — wins  popular  favor 
and  loses  his  self-respect ;  courtly  love  turns  courte- 
san, and,  most  tragic  of  all,  the  prophet  turns  wiz- 
ard and  divines  for  hire. 

The  task  of  spiritualizing  life  consists  primarily 
in  placing  all  human  activity  and  forms  of  service 
however  humble  in  direct  alignment  with  a  central 
compelling  spiritual  motive  that  shall  leaven  the 
whole  lump  of  individual  and  social  activity.  The 
professional  or  hireling  must  give  place  to  the  ama- 
teur or  true  lover.  Ruskin  has  thus  stated  the 
issue:  "It  is  the  whole  distinction  in  a  man;  dis- 
tinction between  life  and  death  in  him,  between 
heaven  and  hell  for  him.  You  cannot  serve  two 
masters;  you  must  serve  one  or  the  other.  If  your 
wrork  is  first  with  you,  and  your  fee  second,  work  is 
your  master  and  the  Lord  of  work,  Who  is  God. 
But  if  your  fee  is  first  with  you,  and  your  work 
second,  fee  is  your  master,  and  the  lord  of  fee  who 
is  the  Devil;  and  not  only  the  Devil,  but  the  lowest 
of  Devils — 'the  least  erected  fiend  that  fell.'  So 
there  you  have  it  in  brief  terms:  work  first — you 
are  God's  servants;  fee  first — you  are  the  Fiend's."1 

In  the  following  book  I  seek  to  state  and  trace 
the  issue  between  the  disinterested  prophets  of  re- 
ligion and  those  who  have  sought  or  been  led  to 
professionalize  religion  as  a  means  to  a  career.  I 
try  to  show  the  type  of  religion  developed  by  its 
true  and  enlightened  lovers  in  contrast  to  the  type 
of  religion  developed  under  the  more  or  less  uncon- 
^uskin,  "The  Crown  of  Wild  Olive" — Lecture  I. 


Introduction  xix 

scious  or  conscious  "will  to  exploit"  to  the  ends  of 
personal,  political,  economic  and  caste  aggrandize- 
ment. 

The  resultant  analysis  reveals  a  pure  and  un- 
mixed type  of  a  universal  religion  which  is  the  core 
of  Christianity.  It  separates  the  fundamental  re- 
ligion from  its  accessories  and  foreign  adhesions  and 
shows  it  in  action  against  the  enemies  of  mankind. 
This  work  should  thus  have  an  emancipating  effect 
upon  the  religious  spirit  of  many  who  are  bound  by 
the  fetters  of  a  hampering  traditionalism.  It  should 
also  move  to  a  reconsideration  of  the  central  claims 
of  religion  those  who  have  swept  out  the  priceless 
jewel  with  the  dust. 

I 

The  key  to  an  understanding  of  historic  and  social 
movements  is  to  be  found  in  the  phenomena  of 
leadership.  On  the  higher  plane,  even  democratic 
and  co-operative  enterprises,  whose  leaders  are  not 
imposed  from  above  but  brought  forth  from  within, 
understand  the  importance  of  intelligent  oversight 
and  direction,  however  much  they  may  seek  to  place 
restrictions  upon  the  personal  powers  of  their  ap- 
pointed heads.  On  a  lower  plane,  the  tribe,  the 
clan,  the  band  of  marauders  (at  certain  stages  these 
words  are  synonyms)  will  follow  the  leadership  of 
the  one  best  qualified  to  help  them  attain  their 
objects. 

At  times  the  leader  by  his  superior  strength, 
wisdom  or  craft  may  be  able  to  exact  tremendous  toll 


xx  Introduction 

in  return  for  his  services.  The  opportunities  for 
leadership  are  also  opportunities  for  exploitation. 
In  spite  of  his  abuses  of  his  position  of  advantage  the 
leader  may  make  himself  felt  as  at  least  the  lesser 
evil.  He  stands  in  the  eyes  of  his  followers  between 
them  and  greater  evils  or  dangers.  His  services  and 
powers  may  even  enable  him  to  inspire  a  supreme 
loyalty — rising  to  hero-worship — and  then  his  ad- 
herents become  prepared  to  sacrifice  to  his  obedience 
their  dearest  possessions — even  life  itself.  In  pro- 
portion as  he  can  make  himself  indispensable  in 
their  eyes  as  a  living  condition  of  the  attainment  of 
of  their  highest  aims  or  strongest  desires,  his  op- 
portunities for  exploitation  are  multiplied. 

The  influence  of  a  strong  leader  may  persist  and 
the  power  of  his  name  may  go  on  increasing  after 
his  death.  The  tradition  of  many  tribes  that  their 
God  was  also  their  ancestor  probably  rests  on  an 
historic  basis  of  fact.  Through  a  process  of  deifica- 
tion the  great  leader  of  the  past  has  come  to  be 
thought  of  as  a  living  divine  being  or  spirit  still 
devoted  to  the  cause  of  his  people  and  exercising  a 
divine  guidance  through  his  successors  or  through  his 
representatives  the  priests  and  oracles  of  the  tribal 
cult.1  The  taxes  or  the  gifts  which  they  paid  or 
gave  to  their  chief  in  his  life  are  now  offered  in 
sacrifice  to  his  spirit  or  paid  to  the  guardians  of  his 
shrines. 

1  His  return  to  earth  as  a  deliverer  may  come  to  be  anticipated 
in  times  of  trouble.  (Cf.  King  Arthur  and  Barbarossa  legends 
and  others  similar.) 


Introduction  xxi 

II 

In  no  field  of  human  interest  do  men  feel  a  greater 
need  of  leadership  than  in  religion.  Here  their  sense 
of  ignorance  and  dependence  is  most  complete. 

Religion  offers  the  most  important  and  indispen- 
sable goods, — negatively,  protection  from  threat- 
ened dangers  of  loss,  sickness,  premature  death  or 
from  unknown  dangers  after  death;  positively,  it 
offers  consolation,  guidance,  hope,  success,  present 
power  and  perhaps  an  eternal  heaven  of  bliss. 

In  religion  the  opportunities  of  leadership  reach 
their  climax — for  good  or  for  evil.  The  appeal  made 
to  the  highest  in  man  should  lead  to  glorious  at- 
tainments. But  the  appeal  to  ignorance,  fear, 
superstition,  credulity,  cupidity,  selfishness, —  to 
the  lower  as  well  as  to  the  better  traits, — may  be 
utilized  by  religious  exploiters  to  their  own  advan- 
tage and  to  the  everlasting  detriment  of  those  who 
are  brought  under  their  control. 

Ill 
With  minor  exceptions  religion  is  organized  on  the 
group  principle — it  belongs  to  a  tribe,  a  nation,  a 
cult,  or  transcends  national  boundaries  as  a  church. 
Its  leaders  seek  and  sometimes  win  a  monopoly  of  its 
dispensation.  Sometimes  we  see  the  struggle  for 
this  monopoly  in  process — now  almost  unopposed, 
again  encountering  fierce  resistance.  The  opposi- 
tion may  come  from  either  of  two  sources,  from  a 
rival  "secular"  or  political  leadership  which  also 
wishes  a  monopoly  of  exploitation,  or  from  a  dif- 


xxii  Introduction 

ferent  type  of  religion  truly  devoted  to  the  welfare  of 
men  and  seeking  to  destroy  the  leadership  of  the 
exploiters  and  substitute  a  disinterested  leadership, 
based  upon  a  higher  conception  of  the  deity  as  the 
beneficent  Guide  of  all  mankind,  a  leadership  aiming 
at  the  emancipation  of  the  downmost  common  man 
and  his  highest  social  and  spiritual  elevation.  This 
type  of  religion  not  only  opposes  the  exploiting  of 
religious  leaders,  but  it  opposes  exploitation  of  every 
kind — whether  by  kings,  the  aristocracy,  the  mili- 
tary feudal  caste,  or  the  money  power.1 

The  religious  leader  of  this  type  is  known  as  the 
Prophet  and  he  early  made  his  appearance  in  the 
history  of  Israel.  He  is  the  spokesman  of  God  and 
of  the  common  people  to  whose  cause  God  is  devoted. 
He  presents  a  theology  incomparably  higher  than 
the  theology  which  the  priests  have  manipulated 
in  the  interests  of  their  own  power  and  control.  He 
denies  all  their  claims  of  monopoly,  of  their  position 
as  middlemen  between  the  Producer  of  all  benefits 
and  the  dependent  consumer.  He  declares  that  the 
tickets  of  admission  sold  by  the  priests — their 
oracles,  ceremonials,  implements  of  divination,  the 
sacrifices  demanded  by  them,  are  fraudulent.  He 
declares  that  no  tickets  are  required — that  every 
man  has  the  right  of  free  access  to  the  God  Who  loves 
him  and  his  fellows  and  wishes  them  well.     In  thus 

1  Frequently  priests  and  princes  pool  their  interests  in  the 
game  of  exploitation.  At  times  prophetic  reformers  have  sought 
to  co-operate  with  the  "secular  power"  to  limit  religious  ex- 
ploitation. 


Introduction  xxiii 

denouncing  the  powerful  exploiting  classes  the 
prophet  not  only  spurns  the  fees  of  religion  but  he 
encounters  the  gravest  personal  dangers.  His  only 
safety  lies  in  the  success  of  his  appeal  to  the  con- 
sciences of  the  wrong-doers  in  high  places  or  in  win- 
ning the  backing  of  the  people.  Some  prophets  by 
these  means  have  worked  and  taught  in  a  measure  of 
security,  but  as  a  rule  the  world-prophets  have  also 
been  the  world-martyrs  because  the  exploiting  classes 
have  hardened  their  consciences  and  preferred  to 
follow  their  exploitations  rather  than  obey  the  Voice 
of  God.  Their  favorite  method  has  always  been 
to  discredit  the  prophet  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  to 
whose  cause  he  was  devoted,  by  accusing  him  of 
being  a  heretic  and  a  blasphemer — and  then  putting 
him  out  of  the  way  by  the  death  penalty — the  people 
having  been  cowed  and  detached  from  their  leader 
through  superstitious  fear  of  the  hierarchy's  claims, 
or  well-grounded  fear  of  its  political  power. 

IV 

The  conflict  between  the  prophetic  and  exploiting 
types  of  religion  early  passed  over  from  Judaism  into 
the  history  of  Christianity.  It  represents  a  per- 
manent alignment  and  is  the  religious  issue  the 
grasping  of  which  is  of  supreme  importance  both 
to  the  intellectual  apprehension  of  what  Christian- 
ity is,  and  to  its  practical  application  as  a  program 
of  human  salvation,  individual  and  social,  economic 
and  spiritual. 

Naturally  the  question  of  supreme  importance  to 


xxiv  Introduction 

our  study  is  the  place  of  Jesus  in  relation  to  the  pro- 
phetic type  of  religion.  To  the  Christian  as  well  as 
to  the  student  of  religion  no  questions  can  be  more 
vital  than  (i)  how  Jesus  stood  in  relation  to  the 
exploiters  of  religion  in  His  Own  day;  (2)  how  He 
embodied  and  perfected  the  prophetic  spirit  of 
religion  and  expanded  it  to  the  widest  reach  of 
Catholicism  (in  its  original  sense  of  Universalism) ; 
(3)  how  He  would  by  inference  regard  those  who 
overlaid  His  prophetic  initiation  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God  by  founding  an  exploiting  ecclesiasticism 
based  upon  His  Person  as  the  God  of  a  cult;  (4) 
where  and  how  the  influence  of  Jesus  is  to  be  mani- 
fested in  the  present  struggle  between  the  pro- 
phetic and  exploiting  types  of  religion  and  in  the 
extension  of  that  struggle  to  the  wider  field  of  con- 
flict between  the  people  and  their  leaders  who  seek 
their  emancipation  from  political,  economic,  social, 
intellectual  and  spiritual  restrictions,  on  the  one 
side,  and  those  self-imposed  leaders  and  masters 
who  strive  to  increase  the  power  of  those  restric- 
tions that  they  and  their  class  may  continue  to  en- 
joy special  privileges  with  their  concomitant  op- 
portunities for  exploitation,  on  the  other. 

V 

The  object  of  this  book,  as  its  title  suggests,  is  a 
study  of  the  historic  conflict  between  the  two  types 
of  religion  which  we  have  designated  as  prophetic 
and  exploiting.  It  further  seeks  to  ascertain  the 
theological  aspects  and  implications  of  the  contest — 


Introduction  xxv 

to  do  justice  to  the  theological  permanence,  veracity 
and  breadth  of  vision  of  prophetism  and  to  show  how 
the  theologies  of  hierarchies  and  ecclesiasticisms 
were  influenced  or  manipulated  in  the  interests  of 
the  will  to  exploit. 

VI 

In  Jesus  we  find  the  supreme  development  of  the 
prophetic  type  of  religion.  In  order  to  vindicate 
this  claim  it  has  been  necessary  to  show  in  how  far 
some  of  even  His  earliest  adherents  misconceived  or 
misrepresented  Him.  We  have  also  been  compelled, 
in  this  interest,  to  introduce  what  may  seem  to 
some  on  first  sight  as  a  diversion — namely,  a  careful 
analysis  of  that  degenerate  and  bizarre  metamor- 
phosis of  prophetism  into  apocalypticism — (the  at- 
tempt of  priestly  writers  to  masquerade  as  prophets), 
and  the  assertion  of  certain  modern  critics  that  the" 
Gospel  of  Jesus  gave  its  adherence  to  this  typical 
gospel  of  hate  and  despair. 

In  this  study  both  psychology  and  criticism  must 
be  employed  as  effectively  as  the  capacity  of  the 
student  of  these  problems  will  permit. 

VII 

It  is  a  great,  sometimes  an  unconscious,  tribute 
which  men  in  every  age  and  of  the  widest  variety  of 
opinions  have  paid  to  the  moral  leadership  of  Christ, 
by  claiming  Him  as  the  embodiment  or  Advocate  of 
their  highest  ideals  and  fondest  dreams.  How 
great  is  the  range  of  these  claimants !  The  Cross  of 
the  Prince  of  Peace,  on  which  He  prayed  for  the 


xxvi  Introduction 

forgiveness  of  His  enemies,  was  taken  as  the  emblem 
of  bloody  conquest  by  the  red-handed  Constantine, 
and  the  term  "Crusade,"  derived  from  the  Cross, 
became  the  synonym  for  war,  rape  and  rapine — the 
criminal  agents  being  fortified  with  plenary  indul- 
gences! Weapons  of  destruction  have  been  blest 
in  the  Name  of  the  Crucified.  At  the  opposite  pole 
the  anchorite,  monk  and  friar  have  worshipped  an 
ascetic  Christ  in  their  own  image,  renouncing  present 
joy  to  save  their  souls  for  pleasures  eternal.  Even 
the  Mohammedans  have  a  Gospel  of  their  own  (a 
pseudepigraphical  " Gospel  of  Barnabas")  which 
gives  the  Mohammendan  interpretation  of  Jesus. 
In  it  Jesus  is  made  to  say  in  the  presence  of  the  High 
Priest  "I  am  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  born  of  Mary,  of 
the  stock  of  David,  a  mortal  man,  and  fear  God  and 
seek  His  honor  and  glory."  He  also  disclaims  the 
title  of  Messiah  and  foretells  the  coming  of  Moham- 
med.1 Philosophical  anarchists  like  Tolstoy,  social 
reformers  like  Bouck  White  and  Bernard  Shaw, 
have  found  their  own  dreams  in  Jesus  the  Carpenter. 
More  recently,  the  decadent  George  Moore2  has 
invented  a  frankly  fictitious  Christ  and  in  His  mouth 
has  placed  expressions  that  reflect  his  own  anti- 
Christian,  futile  philosophy,  while  H.  G.  Wells  has 
read  into  Jesus'  sympathy  for  "fallen  women"  a 
support  for  his  own  doctrine  of  sex  license. 

1  (Ch.  96.)  Quoted  in  article  in  Journal  of  Theological  Studies — 
April,  1902— p.  446,  "On  the  Mohammedan  Gospel  of  Barnabas" 
by  W.  A.  E.  Axon,  LL.D. 

2  In  'The  Brook  Kerith." 


Introduction  xxvii 

VIII 

In  the  modern  age  the  cause  of  prophetism  has  re- 
ceived great  furtherance  and  emancipation  from 
dogmatic  and  ecclesiastical  control  through  the 
triumphant  progress  of  scientific,  historical  and  lit- 
erary criticism  of  the  sources  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testament,  and  the  scientific  study  of  Church  his- 
tory. We  are  thereby  enabled  to  observe  not  only 
the  decorated  tombs  of  the  prophets  or  to  think  of 
them  as  the  merely  temporary  and  subordinate 
foretellers  of  coming  events,  but  as  the  real  co-opera- 
tors with  God,  who  prepared  the  way  for  the  coming 
of  His  reign  on  earth.  Their  message  is  thereby  res- 
cued from  the  scrap  heap  and  given  permanent 
value. 

We  are  also  enabled  to  see  the  inside  of  the  less 
edifying  process  whereby  the  hierarchy  of  exploiters 
falsified  history  and  perverted  the  teaching  about 
the  Nature  and  Will  of  God  in  the  interests  of  their 
caste  pre-eminence. 

The  extension  of  this  process  of  study  should  by 
its  emancipation  of  the  prophetic  spirit  culminate  in 
the  present  and  future  in  the  birth  of  a  new  race  of 
prophetic  leaders  and  the  realization  of  the  triumph 
of  their  cause,  the  cause  of  the  People,  the  cause  of 
Jesus,  named  by  Him  the  Cause  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God. 


RELIGION— ITS   PROPHETS  AND 
FALSE  PROPHETS 


Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False 
Prophets 

CHAPTER  I 

RISE   OF   THE   JEWISH   PRIESTHOOD 

There  is  a  well  grounded  opinion  that  if  we 
could  know  the  stories  of  the  rise  of  all  the  historic 
priesthoods  we  should  find  in  them  a  marked  simi- 
larity of  movement.  We  are  on  fairly  safe  ground 
in  taking  the  case  of  the  Jewish  priesthood  as  typi- 
cal. It  certainly  shows  analogies  to  what  we  know 
of  the  rise  of  the  Christian  priesthood. 

Court  " historians"  in  the  Imperial  East  have 
written  their  epics  to  show  that  Emperors  are  lin- 
eal descendants  of  the  gods  (and  in  the  West  we 
have  the  ^Eneid  of  Virgil) . 

The  official  "Chroniclers"  of  priestly  castes  have 
written  with  a  similar  intention — to  show  the  direct 
Divine  origin  of  the  priesthoods.  In  thus  provid- 
ing the  parvenus  with  the  desired  lineage  some  his- 
torical facts  were  used  in  making  a  mosaic  chart  of 
the  family  tree. 

In  the  Pentateuch  (or  Hexateuch)  we  have  such 
a  mosaic,  and  the  Biblical  antiquarian  desiring  to 
recover  a  true  picture  of  the  past  has  in  his  quest 
incidentally  uncovered  the  literary  devices  em- 
ployed by  the  priests  to  advance  their  own  power 
and  prestige. 


2        Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

By  the  help  of  the  historical  and  literary  critics 
we  are  enabled  to  get  first  a  picture  of  the  primitive 
democratic  and  decentralized  religion — and  then 
to  see  the  movement  of  the  priestly  exploiters  as 
it  arose  and  developed  into  a  centralized  aristocratic 
theocracy. 

I 

When  the  ancestors  of  the  Israelites  were  living  in 
the  nomadic  stage — that  is,  in  the  ''Age  of  the  Pa- 
triarchs"— there  was  no  established  or  centralized 
priesthood. 

"Among  the  nomadic  Semites,  to  whom  the  He- 
brews belonged  before  they  settled  in  Canaan,  there 
has  never  been  any  settled  priesthood.  The  acts 
of  religion  partake  of  the  general  simplicity  of  desert 
life.  Apart  from  the  private  worship  of  household 
gods  and  the  oblations  and  salutations  offered  at 
the  graves  of  departed  kinsmen,  the  ritual  observ- 
ances of  the  ancient  Arabs  were  visits  to  the  tribal 
sanctuary  to  salute  the  god  with  a  gift  of  milk,  first- 
fruits,  or  the  like,  the  sacrifice  of  firstlings  and  vows, 
and  an  occasional  pilgrimage  to  discharge  a  vow  at 
the  annual  feast  and  fair  of  one  of  the  more  distant 

holy  places.     These  acts  required  no  priestly  aid. 

"  i 

•     •     • 

The  stories  of  the  Patriarchs  in  the  earliest  writ- 
ings of  the  Hexateuch  exhibit  similar  conditions. 
There  were  no  Hebrew  priests.     From  the  Code 

1  Article  by  Prof.  W.  R.  Smith  and  Prof.  A.  Bertholet  in 
Encyclopaedia  Biblica,  Vol.  Ill,  Col.  3839. 


Rise  of  the  Jewish  Priesthood  3 

of  the  Covenant  compiled  in  the  8th  Century  B.C. 
(the  earliest  written  document  of  the  Hebrew  cus- 
tomary law — Ex.  20:20,  23:23),  we  find  that  the 
primitive  nomadic  ordinances  continued  in  force  for 
a  long  time  after  the  settlement  in  Palestine.  There 
is  as  yet  no  mention  of  a  priestly  caste.  The  head 
of  the  family  naturally  acted  as  the  officiant,  but 
any  male  member  of  the  family  might  offer  sacri- 
fice when  absent  on  a  journey.  The  form  of  altar 
prescribed  was  such  that  it  might  be  erected  any- 
where in  a  short  time.  It  was  to  be  made  of  un- 
hewn stones  or  of  earth.  The  offerings  consisted 
of  the  first  fruits  of  the  fields,  and  first-born  of 
the  herds.  It  is  nowhere  implied  that  this  early 
offering  was  regarded  as  an  atonement  for  sins.1 
"The  sacrifices  and  offerings  were  acknowledg- 
ments of  the  divine  bounty  and  means  used  to  in- 
sure its  continuance  .  .  .  "2 
"Each  man  slew  his  own  victim  and  divided  the 
sacrifice  in  his  own  circle;  the  share  of  the  god  was 
the  blood  which  was  smeared  upon  or  poured  out 
beside  a  stone  set  up  as  an  altar.  ...  It  does 
not  appear  that  any  portion  of  the  sacrifice  was 
burned  on  the  altar,  or  that  any  part  of  the  vic- 
tim was  the  due  of  the  sanctuary. " 3 

^he  commandment  to  offer  the  firstborn  son  as  a  sacrifice 
(Ex.  22:29)  does  not  belong  in  this  document.  It  was  a  later 
provision  borrowed  from  the  Assyrian  cultus,  and  denounced 
by  the  prophets — (Micah  6:7). 

'Article  "Priest"  in  Encyl.  Biblica,  cited  above. 

•Ibid. 


4        Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

The  description  of  the  Arab  sacrificial  customs 
seems  to  fit  the  conditions  among  the  Israelites  in 
their  nomadic  or  early  agricultural  condition. 

The  Hebrews  identified  the  blood  with  the  life. 
This  was,  therefore,  returned  to  the  Life-giver  as 
His  portion.  It  was  a  sacrilege  to  eat  the  blood. 
This  seems  to  indicate  a  reverence  for  the  mystery 
of  life — in  itself  an  instinctive  religious  motive. 
It  is  probable  that  whenever  an  animal  was  killed 
for  food  this  ceremony  was  a  form  of  "grace  before 
meat." 

II 

The  primitive  Semitic  religion  was  a  lay  religion.1 

The  patriarchs  were  men  of  prayer.  Such  of 
their  prayers  as  are  contained  in  Genesis  breathe 
a  beautiful  spirit  of  intimacy  with  Jehovah  and  a 
consciousness  of  His  everpresent  accessibility  and 
guidance  in  regard  to  the  practical  affairs  of  life. 
A  beautiful  illustration  is  found  in  the  story  of 
Abraham's  servant's  quest  for  the  right  wife  for 
Isaac2  (a  matter  of  vast  importance  in  the  eyes  of 
later  generations  whose  ancestress  was  about  to  be 
selected). 

In  this  assumption  of  God's  nearness  and  acces- 
sibility we  find  the  roots  of  the  democratic  strain 
in  the  later  Hebrew  religion.     Both  the  God-con- 

*It  is  interesting  to  recall  that  in  Mohammedanism,  though 
it  became  an  exploiting  religion,  there  is  no  provision  for  a  sacer- 
dotal caste.  The  original  Arab  democracy  is  safeguarded  and 
perpetuated. 

2  Gen.  24. 


Rise  of  the  Jewish  Priesthood  5 

sciousness  of  the  prophets  and  the  devotional  ap- 
peal of  the  Psalm-writers  find  their  warrant  here. 
Men  who  pray  to  the  same  God  find  in  their  com- 
mon worship  the  strongest  tie  of  solidarity.  The 
group  consciousness  is  strengthened  and  elevated 
at  the  same  time. 

Common  prayer  and  worship  beget  the  highest 
type  of  loyalty,  become  a  source  of  strength  and 
comfort,  and  tend  to  uplift  the  human  spirit,  even 
though  the  theological  ideas  of  the  worshippers 
may  be  crude  and  imperfect.  The  discovery  of 
the  law  of  self-suggestion  by  modern  psychology 
shows  how  religious  beliefs  and  practices,  even 
when  illfounded  in  objective  facts,  may  automati- 
cally produce  highly  beneficial  results.  Of  course 
the  limitation  of  this  primitive  religion  lay  in  the 
tribal  conception.  It  produced  or  strengthened 
at  best  a  sense  of  tribal  solidarity  and  was  divisive 
in  relation  to  the  solidarity  of  the  human  race. 
The  latter  doctrine  had  to  wait  till  the  belief  in 
the  tribal  God  had  been  superseded  by  the  pro- 
phetical belief  in  the  One  God,  the  Creator  and 
Source  of  all  mankind. 

Ill 

As  the  prophetic  religion  had  its  historic  roots 
in  the  patriarchical  God-consciousness,  so  the  ex- 
ploiting religion  grew  up  about  the  local  sacred 
places  scattered  through  the  desert  oases  and  the 
hill  country.  The  early  priestly  families,  repre- 
sented by  Melchisedec,  Jethro,  perhaps   Balaam, 


6        Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

and  others,  were  guardians  of  the  sacred  places 
connected  with  early  theophanies  in  which  God 
had  manifested  Himself  with  particular  vividness. 
Where  God  had  once  been  so  clearly  shown,  His 
Presence  might  again  be  sought  with  the  best  ex- 
pectations. Moreover,  the  visitor  at  the  shrine 
did  not  have  to  depend  upon  a  private  revelation 
which  might  be  delayed  or  wholly  withheld. 

The  guardians  of  the  shrine  had  in  their  keeping 
certain  sacred  instruments  of  divination  by  means 
of  which  they  professed  to  be  able  surely  to  ascertain 
from  God  the  information  desired.  They  claimed 
to  be  able  to  find  the  Divine  Will  and  purpose  regis- 
tered in  the  flight  of  birds  or  the  entrails  of  sacri- 
ficial animals.  If  the  right  omens  were  not  found 
in  the  first  sacrificial  animal  there  was  hope  that 
they  might  occur  in  later  victims  after  the  number 
of  the  sacrifices  had  been  able  to  effect  a  desired 
change  of  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  god.  (Wit- 
ness the  unavailing  persistence  of  Balak  in  his  deal- 
ings with  the  priest  Balaam.  When  a  number  of 
animals  were  thus  sacrificed  it  would  naturally  fol- 
low that  the  priestly  larder  would  be  well  stocked.) 
Moreover,  the  ability  to  manipulate  the  sacred  lot 
opened  an  opportunity  for  influence  on  the  part  of 
the  diviner  which  readily  lent  itself  to  exploitation. 

Not  only  the  rewards  of  the  priests  but  also  their 
influence  was  greatly  enhanced  as  they  came  to  be 
consulted  in  matters  of  growing  importance.  It 
seems  a  small  matter  that  Rebekah  should  "  in- 
quire of  God"   (the  technical  expression  for  con- 


Rise  of  the  Jewish  Priesthood  7 

suiting  the  oracle)  about  the  meaning  of  the  alarm- 
ing symptoms  of  her  pregnancy.  But  the  smaller 
occasion  might  lead  to  the  greater.  Saul  who  goes 
to  inquire  about  his  father's  strayed  asses  through 
Samuel  finds,  through  the  medium  of  the  oracle, 
the  kingship  of  the  Israelites.  He  also  finds  the 
asses. 

The  sanctuary  had  long  had  its  chief  significance 
as  the  seat  of  judgment.  The  Hebrew  law  was  a 
judge-made  law.  In  quarrels,  disputes,  and  dis- 
sensions, the  parties  laid  their  case  before  the  priest 
whose  decisions  were  theoretically  the  decisions  of 
Jehovah  Himself.  Thus  the  law  was  regarded  as 
a  Divine  law.1  This  was  given  especial  prominence 
when  Moses  sat  to  judge  the  people.  Later  all 
the  decisions,  precedents,  and  even  new  decisions 
and  innovations,  came  to  be  regarded  as  proceed- 
ing from  him.  The  Mosaic  tradition  was  claimed 
by  the  later  highly  developed  priestly  colleges  and 
nothing  was  deemed  authoritative  unless  it  could 
claim  the  sanction  of  his  name.  After  the  mon- 
archy the  priests  still  retained  their  judicial  powers 
and  functions  and  this  gave  them  their  political 
influence.  The  claim  to  act  as  fountains  of  Divine 
judgment  gave  the  priests  an  opportunity  to  sway 
affairs  of  state  and  that  they  sometimes  used  fraud 
even  our  records  admit.  Saul  and  David  and  later 
kings  took  no  important  steps  without  consulting 
the  oracle.     The  sense  of  dependence  even  on  the 

1The  word  "Torah" — later  applied  to  the  whole  Jewish  law — 
is  derived  from  a  Hebrew  word  meaning  to  "cast  a  (sacred)  lot. " 


8        Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

part  of  kings  is  shown  in  the  case  of  Saul — who, 
when  he  could  get  no  response  through  the  dis- 
affected priests  "  neither  by  dreams,  nor  by  Urim, 
nor  by  the  soothsayers"  (I  Samuel  28  f),  resorted 
in  desperation  to  the  "  Witch  of  Endor. " 

As  to  the  use  of  fraud  we  are  frankly  told  that 
Elisha,  the  man  of  God,  sent  a  lying  oracle  to  Ben- 
hadad  king  of  Syria  (II  Kings  8:8) — a  thing  held 
to  be  legitimate  in  dealing  with  an  enemy.  More- 
over it  is  not  only  the  soothsayer  who  is  credited 
with  the  use  of  justifiable  fraud — but  even  Jehovah 
Himself.  This  idea  is  not  only  found  in  that  early 
account  of  Jehovah's  making  use  of  a  lying  spirit  in 
order  to  mislead  four  hundred  soothsayers  that  they 
might  entice  Ahab  to  his  death1 — but  so  high  and 
late  an  authority  as  Ezekiel  tells  us  that  Jehovah 
Himself  sometimes  falsified  the  oracle.2 

If  the  priests  (Ezekiel  was  of  their  number)  could 
believe  deception  legitimate  on  the  part  of  God — 
how  should  lying  not  also  be  justified  as  means  to 
desired  ends,  on  the  part  of  God's  representatives 
— i.e.  themselves?  Nothing  could  more  conclu- 
sively discredit  the  priestly  veracity  than  their 
conception  of  a  God  Who  now  and  then  resorted  to 
lies.  This  is  but  a  plain  instance  of  men  creating 
God  in  their  own  image.  Moreover,  it  justified 
them,  in  their  own  eyes,  in  their  falsification  of  the- 
ology and  of  history. 

XI  Kings  22 — and  II  Chronicles  18. 

2 "If  the  prophet  be  deceived,  I,  Jehovah,  have  deceived  that 
prophet."     (Ezek.  14:  19.) 


Rise  of  the  Jewish  Priesthood  9 

IV 

Before  turning  to  the  rise  of  the  literary  prophets 
in  the  Eighth  Century  B.C.,  let  us  rapidly  sketch 
the  emergence  of  the  priestly  caste  after  the  settle- 
ment in  Palestine  and  its  growth  as  an  exploiting 
power  in  the  days  of  Amos  who  denounces  it  in  un- 
mistakable terms  as  an  exploiting  and  corrupt  hier- 
archy utterly  faithless  to  God  and  to  the  Cause  of 
His  people. 

A  primitive  account  of  the  rise  of  an  early  line 
of  priests  is  found  in  the  story  of  Micah's  "  private 
chaplain"  in  Judges  17  and  18:  Micah  is  a  man  of 
wealth  and,  as  he  can  afford  it,  he  is  anxious  to  have 
a  priest  of  his  own  to  consult  the  oracle  for  him  and 
so  bring  him  knowledge  whereby  his  prosperity 
may  be  still  further  increased.  He  has  an  image 
or  images  made  of  silver  (with  no  consciousness 
that  this  would  displease  Jehovah  Whose  favor  he 
is  seeking).  He  himself  makes  the  ephod  and  tera- 
phim — the  instruments  of  divination.  For  the  lack 
of  a  better  he,  though  a  layman,  sets  his  own  son 
apart  as  his  priest.  He  thinks  a  visiting  Levite  from 
Bethlehem  would  make  a  better  priest  and  so  he 
deposes  his  son  and  consecrates  the  Levite  in  his 
place.  He  is  immensely  pleased  with  the  new  min- 
ister. But  the  latter  for  his  part  is  serving  his  own 
interests.  He  is  discovered  by  some  Danites  who 
are  looking  for  a  favorable  place  to  found  a  settle- 
ment. They  consult  the  oracle  through  him  and 
get  a  favorable  response. 


io      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Later  they  return  with  their  fellow  tribesmen, 
rob  Micah  of  his  whole  ecclesiastical  outfit,  priest, 
images,  ephod  and  teraphim.  Thereby  they  se- 
cure the  favor  of  Jehovah  for  themselves.  The 
young  priest  is  not  outraged  by  the  treatment  of 
his  former  patron  (whom  for  some  reason  he  had  not 
forewarned)  but  "his  heart  was  glad"1  at  this  "call 
to  a  larger  field  of  usefulness." 

A  later  gloss  written  after  the  captivity  tells  us 
that  this  priest  was  the  founder  of  the  Danite  priest- 
hood, that  he  was  "Jonathan,  the  son  of  Gershom, 
the  son  of  Moses,"  and  that  his  descendants  con- 
tinued to  be  priests  to  the  Danites  till  the  captivity.2 

The  striking  thing  about  this  story  is  that  the 
fact  of  exploitation  is  at  once  so  conspicuous  and 
so  uncondemned.  What  a  moral  chasm  between 
Moses  and  his  alleged  grandson!  And  what  a 
founder  to  claim  for  a  legitimate  line  of  priests! 
If  the  head  be  corrupt  what  of  the  members!3 

At  a  later  date  and  on  a  larger  scale  we  find  the 
same  element  of  exploitation  in  the  story  of  the 
priests  of  Shiloh.  But  in  this  case  there  is  an 
implied  condemnation  on  the  part  of  the  author  who 
exhibits  the  feeling  of  the  people  as  outraged  by  the 
conduct  of  the  wicked  sons  Hophni  and  Phineas 
of  the  "good"  but  weak  priest  Eli.  At  this  stage 
of  development  the  laity  still  have  the  right  to  offer 
their  own  sacrifices  at  the  shrine  of  which  the  priests 

fudges  18:  30. 

2  Judges  18:30. 

3  The  brief  genealogy  is  probably  fictitious. 


Rise  of  the  Jewish  Priesthood  n 

are  the  guardians.  We  are  plainly  told  that  the 
layman  Elkanah,  future  father  of  Samuel,  thus 
sacrificed  in  his  turn.  The  bad  priests  offended 
by  insolently  helping  themselves  to  whatever  they 
liked  of  the  sacrificial  victims  as  well  as  by  seducing 
whom  they  could  of  the  female  worshippers. 

In  reading  this  narrative  we  have  to  allow  for 
the  fact  that  it  is  being  retold  by  a  later  writer  de- 
voted to  the  claim  of  the  Jerusalem  priesthood  to 
have  the  only  legitimate  right  to  the  succession. 
The  prophecy  of  the  "man  of  God "  that  the  priestly 
house  of  Eli  (nothing  is  said  of  Samuel)  was  to  be 
degraded  and  punished,  and  a  "faithful  priest" 
to  be  raised  up  in  its  stead,  is  by  critics  held  to  have 
been  introduced  as  a  warrant  for  the  later  suppres- 
sion of  that  particular  line  by  Solomon.  It  is  sus- 
pected that  this  later  editor  blackened  the  charac- 
ter of  these  priests  and  made  them  appear  worse 
than  others — in  order  to  justify  their  later  suppres- 
sion. However,  after  Shiloh  was  destroyed  by  the 
Philistines  some  of  the  descendants  of  Eli  appear 
as  priests  at  the  shrine  of  Nob  (I  Samuel  21:2). 
They  are  represented  as  supporters  of  the  claims 
of  David  as  against  Saul  who  on  that  account  sought 
to  have  the  whole  priestly  clan  massacred  and  all 
but  succeeded,  for  Abiathar  alone  escaped — the 
sole  survivor.  He  remained  faithful  to  David  and 
on  the  latter's  accession  to  the  throne  became  High 
Priest.  Other  men  were  now  elevated  to  the  priest- 
hood— among  them  Zadok  the  founder  of  the  most 
powerful   and   enduring  line  of  priests.     He  sue- 


12      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

ceeded  to  the  High  Priesthood  on  the  death  of  David. 
While  the  succession  to  the  throne  was  still  unsettled 
Abiathar  advocated  the  claims  of  David's  son  Ado- 
nijah — whereas  Zadok,  with  better  fortune,  stood  by 
Solomon.  On  the  latter's  accession  Abiathar  was 
banished.  Thus  the  line  of  Eli  was  superseded  by 
the  "faithful  priest"  referred  to  in  the  interpolated 
prophecy  about  the  house  of  Shiloh. 

Zadok  (to  whom  the  Sadducees  traced  their  ori- 
gin and  from  whom  they  took  their  name)  seems 
to  have  been  complacent  in  regard  to  the  royal  be- 
havior. He  presided  over  a  wonderful  temple  and 
did  not  worry  about  the  monarch's  wives  or  the 
houses  built  by  the  king  for  the  worship  of  their 
gods.  His  descendants  carried  exploitation  to  its 
greatest  efficiency  and  later  writers  of  their  group 
provided  their  ancestor  with  a  genealogy  reaching 
back  to  Aaron,  brother  of  Moses. 


The  Rise  of  Prophetism  13 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    RISE    OF    PROPHETISM 

The  progress  of  priestly  exploitation  did  not  go 
on  unresisted.  Before  we  continue  the  story  to  its 
climax  we  will  take  account  of  the  opposition  which 
was  soon  in  full  swing. 

The  prophetic  religion  was  a  distinct  type  from 
the  priestly.  It  was  not  merely  a  movement  of  op- 
position, or  protest,  though  it  developed  positively 
and  constructively  through  its  conflict  with  its 
opposite.  Beginning  as  the  religion  of  one  people  it 
continually  expanded  until  it  became  a  free,  uni- 
versal religion.  It  finds  its  epitome  and  final  de- 
velopment in  the  teaching  of  Jesus.  The  priestly 
religion,  on  the  other  hand,  tended  to  become  more 
and  more  exclusive,  monopolistic  and  oppressive. 

There  are  three  aspects  of  prophetism  which  we 
have  to  consider  in  this  chapter:  (1)  its  hereditary 
origin  as  an  independent  religious  type;  (2)  its  con- 
flict with  its  opposite;  and  (3)  the  resulting  type 
of  prophetic  consciousness.  The  chapter  following 
this  will  be  devoted  to  the  permanent  contribution 
of  prophetism  to  theology  and  ethics. 

I 
We  have  already  noted  that  the  germs  of  pro- 
phetic religion  are  found  in  the  patriarchial.    The 
patriarchs  were   men  of  prayer,  consciously  com- 


14      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

muning  with  Jehovah,  receiving  direct  guidance  in 
answer  to  prayer.  This  guidance  concerned  the  wel- 
fare of  the  tribal  family  of  which  the  patriarch  was 
the  head.  Guidance  is  a  prophetic  note.  Jehovah 
is  the  God  of  the  people,  and  the  internal  social  de- 
velopment of  the  people  is  His  concern.  "The  re- 
ligion of  the  prophet  is  to  be  considered  as  an  inner 
evolution  of  the  Israelite  religion  itself."  l 

This  concern  of  Jehovah  for  the  internal  well- 
being  of  the  tribe,  is,  in  principle,  social  and  demo- 
cratic. Though  the  patriarch  governs,  his  rule  is 
for  the  benefit  of  the  governed.  He  is  a  father,  not 
an  exploiter  of  his  people.  The  patriarch  is  a  lay- 
man— but  a  God-conscious  layman.  The  prophet 
is  also  a  God-conscious  layman,  but  without  the 
patriarchial  authority  to  govern.  He  endeavors, 
however,  to  make  the  guidance  and  authority  of 
Jehovah  the  standard  of  the  people's  conduct.  The 
original  type  of  the  prophet  was  called  the  "seer."  2 

He  had  this  in  common  with  the  primitive  priest, 
that  both  delivered  oracles  when  the  people  came 
to  consult  Jehovah  through  them.  But  whereas  the 
priest  used  the  sacred  lot,  the  seer,  as  the  name 
implies,  was  regarded  as  having  direct  insight  or 
clairvoyance  into  the  mind  of  Jehovah. 

If  the  earlier  seers  ever  used  the  sacred  lot  (which 
may  be  regarded  as  a  sort  of  ancient  equivalent  of 

*Carl  Marti;  The  Religion  of  the  Old  Testament,  Its  Place 
Among  the  Religions  of  the  Nearer  East,  G.  P.  Putnam  Sons, 
1914,  p.  124. 

2 1  Sam.  9:9. 


The  Rise  of  Prophetism  15 

the  modern  Ouija  board)  the  later  prophets  dis- 
carded all  such  instruments  of  divination  and  con- 
sulted Jehovah  in  prayer. 

The  prophets  Samuel,  Elijah  and  Elisha  are  rep- 
resented as  exerting  direct  influence  upon  political 
affairs.  The  latter  two  seemed  to  have  been  like 
great  magicians,  knowing  the  future  and  knowing 
how  to  influence  the  forces  of  nature.  The  Deuter- 
onomist  seems  to  feel  that  it  is  the  strict  province  of 
the  prophet  simply  to  predict.  If  his  predictions 
come  true  he  is  a  genuine  prophet.  If  they  fail  he 
is  a  false,  presumptuous  prophet,  and  is  to  be  put 
to  death.1 

A  prophet  who  confined  his  activities  to  the  en- 
deavor to  foretell  future  events  might  serve  the 
purposes  of  the  priestly  caste.  But  prediction  was 
a  matter  of  relatively  small  moment  with  the  liter- 
ary prophets.  They  concerned  themselves  with  the 
present,  as  religious  and  moral  teachers ;  they  com- 
bated evils  and  so  were  dangerous.  It  was  easy  to 
charge  them  with  being  false  prophets,  if  even  the 
form  of  trial  were  given  them,  and  to  convict  them 
by  a  "packed"  priestly  jury  and  sentence  them  to 
death  by  a  priestly  tribunal. 

The  term  "prophet"  is  applied  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment to  two  distinct  types  of  men,  and  these  need 
to  be  distinguished.  There  were  those  who  repre- 
sented the  free,  democratic  clan  brotherhood  and 
the  nomadic  tradition  of  Israel.  They  had  their 
homes  in  the  hills  where  the  simpler  forms  of  social 
lDeut.  18:20,  22. 


1 6      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

life  persisted.  The  dwellers  in  the  plains  were  being 
corrupted  by  the  Amorite  civilization  of  the  earlier 
dwellers  in  Palestine.  The  form  of  government  had 
become  monarchical ;  the  power  of  wealth  had  been 
organized  into  an  exploiting  aristocracy  and  a 
priestly  caste  was  joining  hands  with  the  strong  to 
keep  the  people  in  subjection. 

The  true  prophets  opposed  all  these  innovations 
as  contraventions  of  the  law  (mishpat)  of  Jehovah. 
Louis  Wallis,  in  his  book  "The  Sociological  Study 
of  the  Bible"  (University  of  Chicago  Press)  has  dis- 
tinguished these  prophets  as  the  "  insurgents." 
There  is  another  class  of  prophets  who  are  adher- 
ents of  the  newer  order.  These  Wallis  calls  the 
"regular"  prophets.  They  supported  the  mon- 
archy, exploiting  aristocracy,  and  worked  hand  in 
hand  with  the  exploiting  priests.  Whenever  we  use 
the  word  prophet  without  a  qualifying  adjective  we 
mean  the  real  or  "insurgent"  prophet,  true  to  his 
Israelite  origin.  The  other  class,  upholding  the 
Amorite  innovations  and  vested  caste  rights,  will  be 
designated  as  "false"  prophets.  They  are  con- 
demned by  the  true  prophets  in  the  same  terms  as 
the  priest.  Such  adjectives  as  "lying"  (Isa.  9:5, 
Jer.  6:3),  and  "covetous"  (Jer.  8:  10),  "drunken" 
(Isa.  28:  7),  and  "profane"  (Jer.  23:  11)  are  applied 
to  them.  Micah  declares  that  these  prophets  di- 
vine for  money  (Micah  3:  11).  (This  implies  that 
the  true  prophets  did  not  accept  payment  for  their 
messages.)  Zephaniah  speaks  of  "light  and  treach- 
erous" prophets  (Zeph.  3:4).     Ezekiel  likens  cer- 


The  Rise  of  Prophetism  1 7 

tain  prophets  to  foxes  (Ezek.  13:  14).  The  most 
serious  charges  against  the  false  prophets  are  con- 
tained in  the  words  of  Jeremiah:  "  I  have  seen  also 
in  the  prophets  of  Jerusalem  a  horrible  thing:  they 
commit  adultery  and  walk  in  lies;  they  strengthen 
also  the  hands  of  evil-doers  that  none  doth  return  from 
his  wickedness  ..."  (Jer.  23:14).  There  was 
a  special  reason  for  the  bitterness  of  Jeremiah 
against  the  false  prophets  as  we  shall  see  later. 

The  true  prophets  stood  by  the  older  customary 
law  or  mishpat  which  protected  the  poor  and  weak 
against  the  aggressions  of  the  wealthy  and  powerful. 
The  intruding  Amorite  mishpat  was  made,  or  at 
least  manipulated,  in  the  interests  of  the  exploiting 
classes.  The  ancient  mishpat  was  to  the  prophet 
the  true  law  of  Jehovah.  It  was  founded  upon 
"justice  and  mercy." 

II 

We  have  now  to  describe  the  actual  struggle  be- 
tween the  prophets  and  their  antagonists.  In  this 
the  prophets  relied  wholly  upon  the  word  of  Jehovah 
and  the  appeal  of  His  word  to  the  consciences  of  the 
ruling  classes.  The  priests,  on  the  other  hand,  relied 
upon  their  claim  to  external  authority  supported  by 
intrigue  and  physical  force.  When  the  prophets 
got  too  obnoxious  to  the  king,  the  nobles,  and  priests, 
they  were  slain.1 

The  prophets  did  not  rest  content  with  general 
charges  against  the  priests  that  they  were  substi- 

1  Jer.  2:  30,  Neh.  9:  26. 


1 8      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

tuting  a  new  mishpat  for  the  old  covenant  of  Jeho- 
vah. There  are  very  specific  charges  in  the  indict- 
ment and  there  is  little  doubt  that  they  were  well 
founded. 

(i)  The  prophets  are  bitter  in  their  denunciation 
of  the  elaborate  sacrificial  ceremonial.  Jeremiah 
explicitly  states  that  Jehovah  gave  no  command- 
ment to  the  fathers  of  Israel  in  regard  to  sac- 
rifice. The  elaborate  priestly  ceremonial  is  thus  an 
innovation.  What  Jehovah  did  command  was  sim- 
ple obedience  to  the  guidance  of  His  living  Voice.1 
Hosea  interprets  Jehovah  as  saying:  "I  desire 
mercy  and  not  sacrifice."2 

Micah  declares  that  Jehovah  desires  nothing  in 
the  way  of  sacrifice  but  instead  justice,  mercy  and 
humility.  Amos  and  Isaiah  give  full  descriptions 
of  the  elaborated  cultus,  every  detail  of  which  is 
described  as  nauseating  to  Jehovah.3 

(2)  The  kings  and  the  ruling  classes  are  grouped 
together  in  many  prophetic  denunciations.  They 
are  recognized  as  members  of  the  same  conspiracy 
of  exploitation.  The  prophets  were  anti-monarchi- 
cal and  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  democratic  clan 
brotherhood.  Especially  bitter  were  Amos  and 
Jeremiah  in  dealing  with  the  sins  of  particular  kings 
whom  the  priests  called  "the  Lord's  annointed." 
The  priests  are  blamed  for  the  support  given  by 
them  to  evil  kings  and  nobles. 

1  Jer.  7:22,  23. 

2  Hosea  6:  6. 

3  Amos  5:  21  ff,  Isa.  1:  11,  ff. 


The  Rise  of  Prophetism  19 

(3)  Hosea  emphasizes  the  charge  of  ignorance  of 
Jehovah  on  the  part  of  the  priests.  Not  knowing 
Jehovah  they  are  practically  godless.  If  they  had 
known  Him  they  could  not  have  been  guilty  of  the 
crimes  they  commit — perjury,  murder,  theft,  adul- 
tery, housebreaking,  and  violence.1 

(4)  The  prophets  also  accused  the  priests  of  cap- 
italizing the  sins  of  the  people  so  as  to  make  revenue 
for  themselves  through  "  indulgences."  As  Hosea 
puts  it:  "They  get  a  living  from  the  sins  of  my 
people  and  their  desire  is  toward  the  people's 
guilt."2 

(5)  The  same  prophet  is  most  explicit  in  charging 
that  the  priests  have  introduced  licentious  rites, 
borrowed  from  heathen  peoples.  The  daughters  of 
the  Israelites  were  thus  led  to  "commit  whoredom, 
and  their  wives  to  commit  adultery."3 

(6)  One  of  the  most  serious  and  far-reaching 
charges  made  by  the  prophets  against  the  priests 
is  that  they  perverted  justice  at  its  fountain  head 
in  accepting  bribes  in  rendering  corrupt  judicial 
decisions.  That  is  the  meaning  underlying  the 
scornful  allusion  to  "gifts"  in  Isaiah  1:  23,  and  to 
"rewards"  in  Micah  3:  11,  7:  3,  Isa.  5:  23,  and 
elsewhere.  In  modern  phrase  the  priests  accepted 
"petty  graft." 

Not  only  was  nearly  every  thinkable  crime 
charged  against  the  priests  but  the  prophets  hold 

1  Hosea  4:  1,  2. 

2  Hosea  4:  8. 

3  Hosea  4:  12,  13. 


20      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

them  responsible  for  the  ignorance  and  low  moral 
state  of  the  people  who  looked  to  them  for  leader- 
ship. So  great  do  they  regard  the  evil  of  the 
priestly  influence  that  they  are  sure  that  Jehovah 
is  determined  upon  the  complete  removal  of  the 
priesthood.  "But  with  you,  O  ye  priests,  will  I  go 
to  judgment.  .  .  .  My  people  is  destroyed  be- 
cause it  has  no  knowledge;  therefore,  will  I  spurn 
you  that  ye  may  be  my  priests  no  more.  And  since 
ye  have  cast  the  mishpat  of  your  God  out  of  your 
minds  I  will  also  cast  your  children  out  of  my  mind."1 
This  is  a  prophecy  of  the  complete  doom  of  the 
priestly  line. 

What  the  priests  are  accused  of  neglecting,  the 
prophets  undertook  themselves  to  do;  to  denounce 
heathen  customs,  to  bring  the  people  out  of  their 
ignorance  of  Jehovah,  to  show  His  wrath  against 
immoral  practices,  to  rebuke  evil  kings  and  exploit- 
ing aristocrats,  to  teach  the  true  mishpat,  justice, 
mercy  and  truth;  to  show  Jehovah's  disgust  at  the 
ceremonial,  to  enkindle  the  consciences  of  sinners 
by  warning  of  the  impending  discipline  of  Jehovah 
in  which  He  will  employ  the  agency  of  conquering 
nations.  They  went  on  to  show  that  the  cultus 
was  no  protection,  as  the  priests  claimed  it  was, 
against  the  threatened  invasion  of  world  powers 
that  would  lead  the  sinful  people  into  captivity. 
Jehovah  would  use  these  very  enemies  against  whom 
the  priests  were  promising  protection,  to  punish  the 
misguided  people  for  their  neglect  of  the  true  mish- 
1  Hosea  4:4-7. 


The  Rise  of  Prophetism  2 1 

pat.  The  king,  aristocrats,  and  their  priestly  sup- 
porters, the  prophets  declared,  would  be  the  first  to 
suffer.  Only  the  righteous,  or  at  least  the  penitent, 
would  escape  the  threatened  disaster,  and  from  these 
survivors,  who  would  have  learned  through  disci- 
pline truly  to  know  Jehovah,  He  would  build  up  a 
truly  righteous  nation  to  fulfil  His  Will. 

Before  calamities  fell  the  prophets  warned  of 
them  and  sought  to  avert  them  by  moving  the 
people  to  repentance.  After  they  had  befallen  the 
prophets  sought  to  drive  home  the  lessons  and  then 
gave  themselves  to  the  mission  of  consolation  and 
to  proposing  a  program  for  the  reestablishment  of 
the  nation  on  a  lasting  foundation  of  righteousness. 
In  this  epoch  they  became  the  interpreters  of  the 
lessons  of  world  history  in  which  they  read  the  un- 
folding Will  of  Jehovah,  and  their  appreciation  of 
the  interpretation  of  history  enabled  them  to  make 
one  of  their  most  important  permanent  contribu- 
tions to  theological  truth. 

On  the  practical  side  the  prophetic  principle  that 
corruption  destroys  any  vestige  of  claim  to  moral 
and  religious  leadership  is  of  fundamental  impor- 
tance to  all  reforming  movements.  It  is  the  safe- 
guard of  religious  liberty.  It  sets  aside  the  priestly 
contention  that  God's  gift  of  authority  to  teach 
and  rule  is  inalienable — a  non-forfeitable  vested 
right.  The  subsequent  claim  of  the  Catholic  Church 
that  the  unworthiness  of  the  priest  does  not  affect 
the  " validity"  of  the  sacrament  is  based  upon  this 
contention  that  corruption  does  not  even  break  the 


22      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

monopolistic  control  of  the  channels  of  access  to 
Divine  favor.  The  object  is  to  force  the  righteous 
layman  to  come  even  to  the  evil  priest  in  order  to 
have  any  transaction  with  the  Deity. 

The  prophet  claims  that  no  one,  no  matter  what 
his  priestly  claims,  can  represent  God  to  another, 
apart  from  a  penitent  life  striving  to  know,  to  do, 
and  to  reveal  God's  Will.  The  priestly  hall-mark 
is  in  itself  an  infringement,  a  usurpation.  The  con- 
ditions of  attaining  religious  leadership  are  open  to 
all. 

The  priestly  and  prophetic  claims  appear  mutu- 
ally irreconcilable.  The  prophets  demand  the  elim- 
ination of  the  whole  ecclesiastical  machine.  The 
priests  retort  with  charges  of  blasphemy  or  heresy 
and  demand  that  the  prophets  be  stoned.  Jeremiah 
2 :  30  and  Nehemiah  9 :  26  bear  witness  to  the  fre- 
quency of  the  prophetic  martyrdoms  and  Jesus 
points  out  that  it  is  in  Jerusalem  (where  the  priests 
have  the  control)  that  the  prophets  must  expect 
nothing  but  death. 

The  prophet's  honor  is  paid  him,  not  in  his  life- 
time, but  by  building  monuments  over  his  ashes 
and  putting  flowers  upon  his  grave. 

Ill 

We  now  turn  from  the  external  conflicts  of  the 
prophets  to  seek  the  inspirational  sources  within  the 
prophetic  souls  and  then  to  contrast  the  prophetic 
with  the  priestly  psychology. 

The   starting   point   of   the   prophet's   career  is 


The  Rise  of  Prophetism  23 

mystic  experience.  God  seeks  the  prophet  and  the 
prophet  is  thereby  led  to  seek  God.  The  God- 
seeker  becomes  the  God-knower.  As  prophetic  ex- 
perience accumulates  and  widens  and  the  God- 
knowledge  deepens,  the  fact  that  God  is  One  is 
clearly  revealed.  The  prophet  further  learns  that 
God,  with  whom  he  communes  in  prayer,  is  also 
teaching  mankind  through  the  movements  of  world 
history.  God  speaking  within  the  soul  and  God 
working  in  human  relations  thus  offers  two  distinct 
channels  of  enlightenment.  The  internal-individual 
and  external-social  experiences  are  mutually  inter- 
pretive. From  his  consciousness  that  God  is  One 
the  prophet  advances  to  the  knowledge  that  all 
mankind  is  but  one  family.  God  has  no  ultimate 
favorities.  If  He  bestows  favors  upon  one  nation 
it  is  in  order  that  the  favored  ones  may  communi- 
cate their  privileges  to  all  the  rest. 

Thus  God  has  a  plan  for  the  whole  world,  and  He 
calls  upon  men  to  the  work  of  getting  that  plan 
accomplished.  The  prophet  discovers  that  it  is  his 
own  function  to  interpret  this  plan  to  his  fellows  and 
win  their  co-operation  in  its  furtherance.  In  this 
he  does  not  seek  to  make  God  useful  to  himself,  as 
is  the  custom  of  priestly  religion,  but  seeks  to  be- 
come useful  to  God.  In  place  of  the  primitive  sense 
of  sin — which  is  associated  with  ceremonial  unclean- 
ness  rather  than  with  moral  lapses — the  prophetic 
consciousness  of  sin  becomes  rather  a  sense  of  failure 
in  living  up  to  the  responsibility  of  co-operating  with 
God  in  righting  the  wrongs  of  the  world.     In  the 


24       Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

prophetic  consciousness  we  find  that  the  conception 
of  sin  is  no  longer  merely  personal,  but  through  the 
new-born  sense  of  responsibility,  it  has  also  become 
social.  Isaiah  combines  these  two  aspects  of  sin 
when  he  says:  "Woe  is  me,  for  I  am  undone,  for  I 
am  a  man  of  sinful  life  and  dwell  in  the  midst  of  a 
people  of  unclean  lips."1  The  consciousness  of  the 
personal  guilt  of  sins  of  omission  comes  out  in  the 
narrative  of  the  prophetic  call.  It  is  the  prophet's 
share  of  the  burden  of  social  guilt.  He  blames 
himself  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  He  takes  upon 
himself  voluntarily  the  burden  of  their  removal. 
This  is  not  to  be  accomplished  by  the  easy  method 
of  shedding  of  blood  of  sacrificial  victims,  or  burnt 
offerings.  God  does  not  ask  to  be  compensated  for 
the  injury  which  men  have  done  Him.  Instead  He 
desires  to  forget  the  past  freely  and  make  a  new 
beginning.  He  desires  the  free  services  of  men 
united  in  the  effort  to  prevent  sin  and  evil.  He 
needs  messengers  and  initiators  of  His  program  of 
repentance  and  a  new  life. 

The  Word  of  God,  the  Spirit  of  God,  the  Vision  of 
God  comes  to  men  as  men.  The  prophets  are  lay- 
men who  are  instructed  directly  of  God  and  they 
make  their  appeal  to  men  as  beings  who  are  respon- 
sible to  God.  They  look  forward  to  the  day  when 
all  men  will  receive  the  appeal  of  God  directly  from 
the  divine  Spirit.2 

The  attitude  of  the  prophet  toward  his  fellows 

1  Isa.  6:  5. 

2  Cf.  Jer.  31 :  33,  Joel  2 :  28  f.     See  also,  Numbers  1 1 :  29. 


The  Rise  of  Prophetism  25 

becomes  thus  identically  God's  attitude  toward 
them.  His  personal  interests  become  identified 
with  God's  interests.  The  solidarity  between  his 
own  interests  and  those  of  God,  between  God's  in- 
terests and  those  of  every  member  of  the  human 
race  makes  the  thought  of  exploitation  in  the  name 
of  religion  a  moral  impossibility.  For  the  prophet 
to  use  his  knowledge  of  God  for  private  ends  be- 
comes logically  impossible.  His  knowledge  of  God 
itself  teaches  him  that  God  utterly  condemns  all 
forms  of  exploitation.  Exploitation  can  rest  only 
upon  a  false  conception  of  God  or  complete  igno- 
rance of  Him.  On  the  contrary,  the  prophet's  knowl- 
edge of  God  entails  a  life  of  fearless  sacrifice  in  His 
cause.  Thus  the  prophets  become  the  world's  mar- 
tyrs. The  readiness  to  die  for  their  cause  is  a  con- 
spicuous element  in  the  prophetic  psychology. 

Priesthood  develops  externally  in  elaborated  cere- 
monial, sacred  vestments,  a  self-perpetuating  hier- 
archy. Prophetism  develops  internally  in  a  deeper 
knowledge  of  God  and  a  growing  sense  of  individual 
responsibility  to  Him.  Priesthood  seeks  to  control 
the  avenues  of  approach  to  God  through  rites  and 
practices  which  none  but  priests  have  the  knowledge 
or  skill  or  right  to  perform.  It  thus  seeks  to  make 
itself  essential  to  intercourse  with  God.  Prophet- 
ism seeks  to  know  God  through  the  internal,  per- 
sonal or  mystical  approach  and  to  impart  the  secret 
of  that  approach  to  all  men.  Priesthood  seeks  to 
make  itself  indispensable  and  permanent.  Prophet- 
ism seeks  to  be  inclusive  and  to  make  of  every  last 


26      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

man  a  mystical  God-knower.  The  priest  seeks  to 
interpose  himself  as  a  permanent,  autocratic  media- 
tor between  God  and  the  soul.  The  prophet  seeks 
to  mediate  temporarily  by  way  of  interpretation  in 
order  that  his  mediation  may  be  rendered  perma- 
nently superfluous. 

The  prophet  is  a  striking  combination  of  con- 
scious weakness  and  a  sense  of  power.  Having 
identified  himself  with  God's  cause  he  is  destined  to 
share  in  God's  triumphs  no  matter  what  individual 
or  personal  fate  may  overtake  him  in  this  life.  He 
may  fail  in  time  but  he  has  succeeded  eternally. 
He  belongs  in  the  eternal  order  even  in  the  midst  of 
time.  It  is  this  consciousness  which  enables  him 
to  understand  how  history  must  ultimately  unfold. 
His  insight  into  the  future  is  not  concerned  with 
individual  happenings  which  he  may  predict,  but 
with  the  larger  questions  of  human  destiny.  "The 
prophet  is  but  the  mystic  in  control  of  the  forces 
of  history,  declaring  their  necessary  outcome;  the 
mystic  in  action  is  the  prophet. ' ' l  "  Prophetic  power 
is  the  final  evidence  to  each  individual  that  he  is 
right  and  real.  It  is  his  assurance  of  salvation;  it 
is  his  share  of  divinity;  it  is  his  anticipation  of  all 
attainment."2 

The  prophet  finds  out  what  he  is  for.  God 
formed  Jeremiah  in  the  womb  to  become  His 
prophet.     The  prophet  is  conscious  at  first  of  his 

locking,  "The  Meaning  of  God  in  Human  Experience,"  p. 

5". 
2  Ibid.  p.  512. 


The  Rise  of  Prophetism  27 

own  spiritual  infancy,  the  insufficiency  of  his  per- 
sonal power  to  respond  to  the  momentous  call. 
But  the  call  itself  elicits  from  a  latent  divine  gift — 
the  growing  strength  necessary  to  respond  to  it. 
As  this  develops  it  culminates  in  the  consciousness 
of  "power  from  on  High."  Jehovah  says:  "Be- 
hold, I  have  put  my  words  in  thy  mouth:  see,  I 
have  this  day  set  thee  over  the  nations  and  over 
the  kingdoms  to  pluck  up  and  break  down  and  to 
destroy  and  to  overthrow  and  to  build  and  to  plant."1 

The  prophet  believes,  as  did  the  ancient  patri- 
arch, that  the  immediate  guidance  of  God  is  a  per- 
manent factor  in  individual  and  social  life.  Here 
he  again  breaks  with  the  priest,  who  teaches  that 
the  law,  as  a  permanent  external  whole,  was  once 
delivered  to  the  ancestors  of  the  race.  This  law 
may  not  be  changed,  however  much  it  may  be 
elaborated  and  its  application  extended. 

The  prophet  believes  that  instead  of  a  law — im- 
personal and  unchanging — communicated  as  a  com- 
plete whole  by  God  in  the  past,  God  progressively, 
through  the  inspired  insight  of  religious  leaders, 
teaches  right  principles  of  conduct  and  courses  of 
action. 

The  priestly  conception  of  the  "Torah"  develops 
into  legalism  a  form  of  law-worship  or  idolatry. 
The  law  is  regarded  as  existing  as  an  end  in  itself. 
Man  is  regarded  as  existing  for  the  law,  whereas  the 
prophet  regards  the  law  as  existing  for  the  benefit 
of  man. 

ijer.  1:  10. 


28      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Against  legalism  the  prophet  urges  a  living  spirit- 
ual and  moral  guidance.  Those  who  are  suffi- 
ciently in  earnest  may  discover  the  law  of  God 
written  in  their  own  inward  parts.1  To  the  spiritu- 
ally awakened  ear  the  command  comes  "  Hearken 
to  my  voice."2  This  living  voice  proclaims  moral 
responsibility  reaching  far  beyond  the  precepts  of 
the  written  law.  It  teaches  principles  instead  of 
enacting  legislation — such  living  principles  as  love 
to  God  and  love  to  fellow  man.  It  is  not  forcing 
the  meaning  of  Jeremiah  to  say  that  the  Voice  of 
God  to  which  he  urges  allegiance  is  none  other  than 
the  voice  of  the  divinely  enlightened  conscience. 

Having  seen  the  connection  of  prophetism  with 
the  ancient  Israelitish  religion,  having  seen  it  in 
action  against  its  opposite — developed  out  of  the 
Amorite  soil,  and  having  studied  the  main  elements 
of  its  psychology,  we  now  turn  to  its  permanent 
theological  and  ethical  contributions. 

xJer.  31:  33- 
2Jer.  11:4. 


Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic  29 


CHAPTER   III 

PROPHETIC  THEOLOGY  AND  ETHIC 

The  source  of  the  prophetic  insight  is  no  less  than 
God  Himself.  As  we  have  already  seen  the  chan- 
nels through  which  that  insight  comes  are  two — the 
direct,  through  mystical  personal  experience,  and 
the  indirect — through  history  or  the  collective  ex- 
perience of  the  race. 

God  is  the  Source  from  Which  all  men  and  all 
things  have  arisen.  God  is  the  destiny  to  which  all 
men  and  all  things  are  to  return  on  a  higher  plane. 
Meanwhile  men  have  to  fight  their  way  along  the 
arduous  and  perilous  spiral  of  existence  and  need 
guidance  and  help  in  so  doing.  There  are  five  great 
ideas,  together  embodying  a  complete  synthesis  of 
religious  and  ethical  factors,  which  the  prophetic 
movement  as  a  whole  has  contributed  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  problem  of  existence. 

(i)  The  prophets  discovered  the  value  of  the  in- 
dividual through  mystical  experience.  This  dis- 
covery is  at  once  theological  and  ethical,  (ii)  The 
prophets  discerned  God  at  the  center  of  the  historic 
movement.  Thereby  history  finds  a  theological  and 
ethical  meaning,  and  the  mystery  of  suffering  is 
explained,  (iii)  The  prophets  grasp  the  truth  of 
religious  universalism — the  ultimate  principle  of  the 
final  world  religion,  and  find  the  principle  of  the 
universal   ethic   in    the   doctrine   of   service,     (iv) 


30      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

This  universalism  unites  the  theological  doctrine  of 
monotheism  with  the  ethical  doctrine  of  the  solidar- 
ity of  mankind.  The  unity  of  God  does  not  make 
Him  the  philosophical  Absolute  but  reveals  Him  as 
the  Supreme  Person.  He  does  not  absorb  His  uni- 
verse nor  does  the  race  absorb  the  individual. 
Room  is  thus  left  for  "pluralism, "  which  recognizes 
the  eternal  value  of  separate  individualities  and  so 
gives  the  basis  for  the  doctrine  of  immortality,  (v) 
The  religio-ethical  is  found  in  the  prophet's  vision 
of  the  social  destiny  of  mankind  (named  in  modern 
times  the  "Messianic  idea")  which  signifies  the 
triumph  of  God's  Leadership  in  history.  The  pro- 
phetic interpretation  of  this  "Messianic"  ideal 
differs  from  both  the  monarchical  and  priestly. 

The  prophetic  quest  for  truth,  for  reality,  for 
God,  does  not  employ  the  mechanism  of  formal  logic. 
It  seeks  to  attain  its  object  by  means  of  "vision," 
or  the  direct  inner  beholding  of  reality.  In  the 
modern  phrase  its  method  is  that  of  intuition  or 
immediate  insight.  Instead  of  using  the  syllogism 
which  creeps  in  the  direction  of  truth  by  a  zig-zag 
process  its  method  is  to  employ  the  direct  approach 
to  truth.  The  resultant  experience  enables  the 
prophet  to  declare  "The  word  of  the  Lord  came 
unto  me,  saying."  This  sounds  very  ancient  and 
naive,  but  it  is  given  a  modern  standing  among 
sophisticated  philosophies  by  the  work  of  Bergson 
and  James.  It  is  more  than  an  accident  that  the 
modern  philosopher  of  intuition  should  be  a  de- 
scendant of  the  ancient  Hebrews.     He  has  given  a 


Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic  31 

complete  philosophical  warrant  to  the  method  em- 
ployed by  the  ancient  prophets  in  their  grasping  of 
ultimate  reality  by  exalting  the  method  of  "in- 
tuition, "  the  philosophical  complement  of  the  theo- 
logical "inspiration,"  in  showing  its  superiority  to 
the  Greek  logic  as  the  proper  instrument  of  specula- 
tion. James  has  done  an  equal  service  in  attaching 
a  claim  for  the  validity  of  religious  experience  as  a 
source  of  the  knowledge  of  reality.  Nowhere  can 
we  get  a  clearer  appreciation  of  the  value  of  spiritual 
intuition  than  in  the  study  of  the  permanent  com- 
bined results  of  the  prophets  of  Israel  and  the 
teachings  of  Jesus. 

I 

By  the  aid  of  the  mystical  approach  to  reality 
the  prophets  discovered  the  value  of  the  individual. 
Let  us  consider  how  this  came  about. 

Primitive  or  tribal  religion  subordinated  the  value 
of  the  individual  completely  to  the  interests  of  the 
tribe.  The  individual  existed  for  the  tribe.  Prim- 
itive Israelitish  religion  was  distinguished  from  other 
primitive  tribal  religions  by  the  conviction  that  the 
tribe  also  existed  for  the  benefit  of  the  individual. 
But  the  value  of  the  individual  is  not  ultimately 
appraised  till  revealed  by  the  prophetic  experience. 

The  prophet  not  only  finds  God  but  in  so  doing 
first  truly  finds  himself.  As  he  learns  to  know  God 
he  also  learns  that  God  already  knows  him  as  a 
separate  personality,  not  merely  as  a  fragment  of  the 
nation.     His  "prophetic  call"  is  the  discovery  that 


32      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

God  needs  him  as  the  messenger  of  His  Will  to  His 
people.  The  consequent  dependence  of  God  upon 
an  individual  as  an  agent  of  His  working  plan 
gives  to  the  individual  a  supreme  value.  On  making 
the  discovery  the  prophet  is  at  once  humbled  and 
transported.  He  knows  his  past  limitations,  but, 
in  spite  of  them,  he  expands  with  the  consciousness 
of  potential  greatness.  God's  need  of  him  makes 
the  prophet  great.1 

But  the  prophet's  work  cannot  be  carried  out  in 
isolation.  His  primary  task  is  to  reproduce  his  own 
type  among  the  people  who  must  be  brought  equally 
to  the  realization  that  prophetic  responsibilities 
await  them  all — that  is,  that  all  are  called  to  as- 
sume a  share  in  establishing  the  divine  community. 
God  needs  all  men  and  so  all  men  acquire  an  equal 
value  with  the  original  prophet.  They  are  called 
upon  to  repent — not  merely  to  regret  the  past,  but 
radically  to  remodel  their  lives  on  the  plan  of  God's 
Will  for  the  realization  of  the  righteous  state. 
When  the  state  is  thus  realized  in  righteousness  it 
exists  for  God,  but  at  the  same  time  it  also  exists  for 
the  benefit  of  its  lowliest  and  weakest  member.  The 
importance  of  the  community  is  not  relatively  les- 
sened because  of  the  supreme  value  given  to  the 
individual.  On  the  contrary  the  value  of  the  com- 
munity is  raised  to  the  highest  point  because  in  it 
alone  can  the  individual  find  his  task  and  thus  come 
to    complete    self-realization.     Salvation    for    the 

1  Witness  the  calls  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  Isa.  6  and  Jere- 
miah I. 


Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic  33 

individual  consists  in  forgetting  to  seek  his  private 
salvation  but  instead  in  seeking  the  salvation  of  the 
whole  community. 

II 

This  now  becomes  the  prophet's  task.  He  must 
bring  others  to  unite  with  him  in  seeking  to  organize 
the  social  life  of  mankind  according  to  the  Will  of 
God.  A  righteous  society  or  state  cannot  exist  in 
isolation  in  the  midst  of  a  godless  world  any  more 
than  the  righteous  individual  can  be  in  safety  in  the 
midst  of  a  wicked  social  order.  The  earlier  tribal 
religion  held  that  Jehovah's  chosen  people  could 
exist  in  safety,  though  surrounded  by  strong  nations 
who  cared  nothing  for  Jehovah's  Will.  The  prophets 
came  to  see  clearly  that  the  nations  who  "knew  not 
Jehovah"  were  both  a  corrupting  influence  and  an 
external  menace.  God's  plan  for  the  Israelites 
could  not  work  out  except  as  it  included  the  heathen 
peoples  in  its  scope.  In  the  eyes  of  the  popular 
religion  the  destiny  of  the  heathen  was  to  be  held  in 
a  state  of  complete  subjugation  by  the  "chosen 
people."  But  the  prophets  had  a  more  religious 
and  ethical  solution.  The  great  nations  must  also 
be  won  to  allegiance  to  Jehovah  and  His  Will  for 
their  own  sakes  as  well  as  for  the  sake  of  Israel. 
Israel  and  all  the  other  nations  exist  for  that  future 
community  organized  according  to  the  Will  of  God 
and  including  all  mankind. 

In  fact  the  prophets  see  Jehovah  as  already  over- 
ruling the  wills  of  the  great  nations.     "According 


34      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

to  Amos,  Hosea,  Isaiah  and  Micah,  Jehovah  not 
only  has  power  over  Israel  and  its  armies,  but  the 
Assyrians  and  the  Egyptians  are  at  His  disposal  to 
carry  out  His  plans." l 

The  priests  fostered  the  idea  that  by  means  of  the 
national  cult  with  its  offerings  and  sacrifices  Jehovah 
would  be  led  miraculously  to  protect  His  favorites 
from  the  invasion  and  conquest  overtaking  other 
smaller  peoples.  The  prophets  denounced  this  as 
vain  and  superstitious  folly.  In  opposition  to  the 
priests  they  declared  that  the  nation  was  not  ful- 
filling the  pleasure  of  Jehovah.  It  could  not  do  so 
because  it  was  not  aware  of  His  plan.  It  could  only 
be  awakened  by  some  terrible  lesson,  and  Jehovah 
was  able  to  teach  that  lesson  by  the  punitive  power 
of  the  great  conquering  nations  under  His  control. 
When  at  length  Israel  should  have  truly  learned  its 
lesson  then  it  would  become  the  world  teacher. 
Universal  peace  and  a  league  of  all  nations  knowing 
Jehovah  and  fulfilling  His  Will  would  come  as  the 
culminating  achievement.  In  this  universal  com- 
munity of  God  the  individual  would  find  his  com- 
plete well-being  and  enduring  safety.2 

But  till  the  day  should  come  when  Israel  would 
realize  its  God-given  mission  there  must  be  such 
disciplinary  suffering  as  would  awaken  the  people 
to  the  consciousness  of  their  high  calling. 

In  no  respect  does  the  prophetic  religion  throw  a 
clearer  light  upon  the  dark  mystery  of  existence  than 

xCarl  Marti,  op.  cit.  p.  131. 
2Cf.  Isa.  2,  Micah  4. 


Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic  35 

in  the  profound  insight  into  the  divine  mission  of 
suffering. 

Hosea  learns  from  the  anguish  of  his  soul  in  deal- 
ing with  an  adulterous  wife  what  God's  attitude  is 
toward  His  faithless  people.  He  also  learns  from 
his  insight  into  God's  dealing  with  Israel  how  he 
should  conduct  himself  towards  his  wife  whom  he 
loyally  persists  in  loving  despite  her  treachery  to 
himself.  Instead  of  inflicting  upon  her  the  penalty 
of  the  law,  instead  of  hardening  his  heart  to  the 
point  of  hating  her,  he  forgives,  woos  and  wins  her 
back  to  the  ways  of  decency  and  honor,  and  be- 
comes the  redeemer  of  his  wife,  as  Jehovah  is  the 
Redeemer  of  Israel.  The  adulterous  wife  and  the 
adulterous  nation  must  suffer,  but  their  suffering 
is  essential  to  their  restoration  and  comes  from  a 
lover  (human  in  one  case,  Divine  in  the  other)  who 
does  not  punish  because  of  the  bitter  resentment  of 
his  soul,  but  because  of  his  redeeming  love  over- 
coming the  feeling  of  resentment. 

But  even  more  striking  is  the  fact  that  the 
prophet's  own  attitude  towards  his  people  comes  to 
be  exactly  the  same  as  Jehovah's  attitude.  The 
prophet  is  a  penitent.  He  has  been  a  sinner,  but  he 
has  sought  God  and  received  forgiveness  and  puri- 
fication. He  is  not  in  an  attitude  of  rebellion  but  of 
obedience.  It  does  not  occur  to  him  to  seek  to  save 
his  own  soul  by  separating  himself  from  his  people 
and  so  escape  the  calamities  that  have  fallen  upon 
them.  He  shares  their  fate  while  trying  to  save 
them  from  it.     He  suffers  with  them  though   he 


36      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

deserves  no  punishment.  Nay,  in  working  for  their 
good  he  incurs  their  ill  will  and  hatred.  Speaking 
the  truth  to  them  in  love  he  is  hewn  in  sunder  by  the 
sword  which  they  turn  against  him  in  their  anger. 
He  dies  for  love  of  them — seeking  not  his  own  re- 
ward. The  prophet's  life,  not  merely  his  work, 
becomes  a  theodicy. 

Amos  believed  that  a  righteous  remnant  would  es- 
cape the  calamities  inflicted  upon  the  nation.  The 
experiences  of  the  captivity  taught  men  that  in 
great  calamities  the  righteous  and  wicked  alike 
suffer  the  same  external  evils.  During  the  captivity 
those  born  on  foreign  soil  came  to  utter  the  thought 
that  they  were  the  innocent  victims  of  their  parents' 
sins.  "  The  parents  have  eaten  sour  grapes  and  the 
children's  teeth  are  set  on  edge."  Against  this 
complaint  Ezekiel  dogmatizes  with  the  utterance  of 
the  principle  that  each  soul  is  to  be  treated  according 
to  its  personal  merits — the  father  is  not  to  suffer  for 
the  son  or  the  son  for  the  father.  But  this  dogma 
overlooked  the  plain  facts  of  observation  and  ex- 
perience. 

The  true  situation  was  that  discovered  by 
Ezekiel's  successor,  the  anonymous  prophet  some- 
times called  "The  Great  Unknown,"  sometimes  the 
Second  Isaiah.  He  saw  that  the  same  external 
ordeal  awaits  the  evil  and  the  good — but  that  the 
reward  of  the  righteous  is  internal  and  spiritual. 
The  righteous  accepts  the  suffering  and  profits  by 
it.  It  becomes  a  bond  of  union  between  himself 
and  Jehovah.     He  accepts  it  without  complaint  or 


Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic  37 

outcry — "as  a  sheep  before  his  shearers  is  dumb." 
Hereby  he  enters  into  the  inheritance  of  the  blessed 
by  becoming  Jehovah's  agent — acting  as  His  '  'suf- 
fering servant."  "He  sees  the  travail  of  his  soul 
and  is  satisfied."  Nay  more  than  satisfied — he 
knows  the  joy  and  triumph  of  God's  victorious  Son. 

Ill 

Modern  apologists  see  in  pain  a  danger  signal  of 
warning.  Pain  is  often  the  concomitant  of  the  effort 
of  nature  to  grow,  expand,  and  to  heal.  Thus  the 
object  of  pain  is  ultimately  beneficent. 

The  discovery  of  the  true  means  to  eradicate 
social  pains  may  lead  to  the  discovery  of  the  divine 
intention  in  respect  to  the  adjustment  of  human  rela- 
tions. The  rule  of  service  is  the  program  advocated 
by  the  prophet  for  the  eradication  of  the  social  causes 
of  suffering.  The  suffering  prophet  finds  escape 
from  his  private  woes  by  giving  himself  in  service  to 
the  sinful  and  weak. 

Humanity  has  a  common  destiny.  The  righteous 
can  only  survive  (in  the  biological  sense)  by  "mak- 
ing many  righteous."  The  righteous  individual 
must  impart  his  qualities  to  his  own  people.  The 
righteous  people  must  then  spread  that  divine  qual- 
ity till  it  reaches  all  mankind.  The  escape  from 
suffering  must  be  a  social,  solidaristic,  universal 
escape,  or  what  we  might  call  social  salvation. 
Hence  the  prophetic  theology  sets  the  foreign  mis- 
sionary his  task  of  a  campaign  for  world-wide  salva- 
tion.    The  nations  must  be  brought  into  the  fold. 


38      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

The  suffering  servant  has  been  characterized  by 
George  Adam  Smith  in  his  work  "The  Book  of 
Isaiah, "  as :  "A  human  figure  of  lofty  character  and 
unfailing  perseverance  who  makes  God's  work  of 
redemption  his  own,  puts  his  heart  into  it,  and  is 
upheld  by  God's  hand.  God,  let  us  understand,  has 
committed  His  Cause  upon  earth  to  human  agents." l 
God,  for  His  part,  is  supremely  interested  in  human 
concerns.  "He  is  One  Who  arises  and  comes 
down,  Who  makes  virtue  His  Cause  and  righteous- 
ness His  passion."2 

The  nation  is  also  conceived  as  the  suffering  serv- 
ant. Not  ruling  other  nations  with  a  rod  of  iron 
as  a  mark  of  the  favoritism  of  an  All-powerful  God, 
we  may  find  a  humiliated,  conquered  nation,  in  the 
hour  of  its  seeming  failure  aspiring  to  be  used  as  an 
ally  of  God. 

God  Himself  also  suffers  through  His  sympathies 
and  in  His  arduous  toil.  His  work  is  not  lightly  ac- 
complished by  the  mere  utterance  of  a  fiat.  It  is 
still  in  the  process  of  accomplishment  and  in  it  He 
also  travails.  "  In  the  affliction  of  His  people  He  is 
afflicted."  How  this  contrasts  with  the  priestly 
teaching  that  God  is  able  to  do  all  things  independ- 
ently of  the  co-operation  of  man,  but  that  He  waits 
to  be  persuaded  by  the  use  of  correct  ritual  to  give 
good  gifts  to  His  dependent  children.  This  con- 
ception lacks  the  ethical  quality  and  robs  God  of  the 

JOp.  cit.  vol.  II,  p.   133. 
2  Ibid.  p.  140. 


Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic  39 

character  of  loyalty  to  the  best  interests  of  His  crea- 
tures and  robs  man  of  the  opportunity  to  enter 
into  co-operative  companionship  with  the  Most 
High.  The  prophetic  theology,  in  contrast,  is 
moral,  developmental  and  normal.  God  does  not 
inflict  punishment  out  of  wanton  cruelty  or  capri- 
cious anger  but  uses  pain  to  develop  men  of  the  high- 
est character,  through  whom  His  Own  designs  are 
accomplished.  This  is  the  interpretation  to  the 
understanding  of  the  53rd  Chapter  of  Isaiah,  es- 
pecially in  the  concluding  verses: 

My  righteous  servant  shall  make  many  righteous, 
And  himself  will  bear  the  burdens  of  their  iniquities, 
Therefore  I  will  give  him  a  portion  among  the  great, 
And  with  the  strong  shall  he  divide  his  spoil, 
Because  he  poured  out  his  life-blood, 
And  was  numbered  with  the  transgressors, 
And  himself  bore  the  sins  of  many, 
And  interposed  for  transgressors.1 

The  prophet's  attitude  towards  sin  is  the  same  as 
that  towards  suffering.  He  does  not  reproach  others 
for  causing  him  these  heavy  burdens  but  by  being 
a  sharer  in  the  community's  sins  he  labors  to  remove 
the  sources  of  the  sins  from  the  community.  His 
consolation  is  that  his  sin-bearing  and  pain-bearing 
have  a  value  in  the  sight  of  God  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind,  that  they  set  a  lofty  standard  to  his 
fellows  and  have  a  purging  and  sanctifying  influence 
upon  his  own  soul.  His  sin-bearing  effects  a  change 
for  the  better  in  the  character  of  the  sinners  who 
Usa.  53:11,  12.     (Kent's  Version.) 


40      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

come  under  the  spell  of  his  influence  as  well  as  in 
his  own  character. 

IV 

Underlying  and  inseparable  from  the  development 
of  ethical  universalism  with  its  doctrine  of  service  is 
the  growing  consciousness  of  the  unity  of  God — 
theological  monotheism.  As  Marti  says,  "One 
might  transcribe  every  page  of  the  prophets  of  the 
eighth  century.  They  contain  a  unanimous  testi- 
mony to  the  sole,  unlimited  and  irresistible  power  of 
Jehovah,  and  they  are  at  the  same  time  a  proof  that 
in  its  essence  monotheism  existed  from  the  very  first 
and  the  earliest  prophets."  l 

It  is  important  to  remember  the  logical  connection 
between  monotheism  and  ethical  universalism. 
The  prophets  could  not  separate  their  doctrine  of 
the  One  God  from  the  doctrine  of  the  solidarity  of 
mankind.  The  priestly  writers  were  inconsistent 
when  they  took  over  the  prophetic  doctrine  of 
monotheism  while  rejecting  the  prophetic  ethical 
universalism.  They  held  to  the  ridiculous  and 
presumptuous  views  that  the  One  Omnipotent  God 
remained  interested  alone  in  the  Jewish  race.  This 
narrow  conception  is  satirized  by  a  Jewish  writer  of 
the  Hellenistic  period  in  the  Book  of  Jonah.  The 
narrowness  of  that  fictitious  false  prophet  receives 
the  scorn  of  this  liberalized  author  of  a  parabolic 
writing.  Jonah  is  made  ridiculous  by  his  attempts 
to  escape  from  the  territory  of  Jehovah,   by  his 

x0p.  cit.  p.  132. 


Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic  41 

chagrin  at  God's  mercy  to  the  Ninevites  after  their 
repentance,  and  by  his  caring  more  about  the  fate 
of  a  gourd  vine  than  for  the  fate  of  a  great  city. 
The  work  seems  almost  to  strike  a  note  of  levity  at 
the  expense  of  the  tribal  idea  of  God,  but  the  Book 
receives  a  great  weight  of  seriousness  from  the 
approving  use  made  of  it  by  our  Lord.  We  must 
remember  that  humor  was  one  of  the  prophetic 
weapons  which  Jesus  Himself  did  not  hesitate  to 
employ  even  in  dealing  with  the  most  serious  mat- 
ters.1 

V 

Because  of  his  knowledge  of  God's  power  and  love 
the  prophet  knows  how  the  future  will  ultimately 
unfold.  He  can  foresee  but  one  ending  to  the  drama 
of  life — a  happy  one.  The  tragic  estrangement 
between  God  and  humanity  will  yet  be  done  away 
and  there  will  be  an  eternal  reconciliation.  How- 
ever long  the  tragic  episode  may  be  drawn  out  by 
human  perversity  the  end  will  be  in  the  phrase  of 
Dante,  a  Divina  Commedia. 

There  is  to  be  a  universal  human  brotherhood, 
founded  upon  mutual  love  and  service  and  upon  the 
immediate  knowledge  of  God  and  guidance  by  Him. 
Through  what  agency  is  this  golden  age,  this  reign 
of  God  on  earth  to  be  accomplished? 

In  the  times  of  Israel's  oppression  a  deliverer  was 
anxiously  looked  for.  Who  and  what  should  the 
leader  be?     All  answers  agreed  "an  anointed  one" 

xSee  St.  Luke  10:41,  Moffat's  Version, 


42      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

— in  the  Hebrew  "  a  Messiah, "  that  is,  one  especially 
consecrated  to  the  office  or  task.  There  were  three 
kinds  of  Messiahs  or  " anointed  ones" — kings, 
priests  and  prophets.  It  is  a  strange  fact  that 
Christian  theology  has  almost  exclusively  identified 
the  word  "Messiah"  with  kingship.  The  popular 
imperialistic  idea  of  the  Jews  was  doubtless  at  one 
time  that  the  Messiah  should  be  a  conquering  king 
who  would  deliver  Israel  from  its  enemies,  extend 
the  kingdom  into  an  empire,  and  establish  the  inner 
well-being  of  the  people.  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah 
looked  forward  at  times  to  a  righteous  king  who 
would  carry  out  their  program  of  social  justice. 
But  apart  from  a  few  passages  in  the  writings  of 
these  two  prophets  and  in  allusions  by  Haggai  and 
Zechariah  to  contemporary  Davidic  princes,  the 
monarchical  idea  of  Messiahship  is  not  common  in 
the  Old  Testament.  It  finds  a  most  interesting 
illustration  in  those  passages  of  the  prophecy  of  the 
Great  Unknown  wherein  he  hails  Cyrus  the  Persian 
as  Jehovah's  Messiah.  This  is  because  in  his  uni- 
versalism  the  prophet  believed  that  the  emperor 
was  an  agent  of  Jehovah  in  rehabilitating  the  Jewish 
people. 

Comparatively  little  attention  has  been  paid  by 
Christian  theologians  to  the  expectation  that  the 
future  happy  state  of  the  Jews  is  to  rest  in  the  hands 
of  the  Jewish  priesthood.  This  idea  underlay  the 
theocratic  dream  of  the  restored  Israel  in  Ezekiel. 
It  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  aspiration  of  the  post- 
exilic  priesthood  and  has  left  traces  in  the  book  of 


Prophetic  Theology  and  Ethic  43 

Daniel.  In  Daniel  the  government  is  to  be  in  the 
hands  of  the  "  saints, "  as  he  designates  the  priest- 
hood, but  the  Deliverer  is  no  less  than  Jehovah  Him- 
self, Who  is  expected  to  intervene  by  a  catastrophic 
miracle  in  which  the  heathen  are  to  be  utterly 
crushed  into  submission. 

We  read  of  the  anointing  of  the  prophet  Elisha  by 
Elijah.  But  as  a  rule  "  anointing, "  as  applied  to 
the  prophets,  was  used  figuratively  of  the  divine 
spiritual  unction  as  in  Isa.  61 :  1. 

In  our  study  of  the  Deutero-Isaiah  we  have  found 
the  conception  that  the  coming  deliverer  is  not  a 
king  but  a  suffering  prophet.  The  prophet  is  to 
accomplish  the  stupendous  task  through  moral 
leadership  and  religious  instruction. 

This  type  of  Messianic  idea  is  the  most  ethical, 
the  most  rational  and  exalted.  In  place  of  the 
leadership  of  a  political  king  or  priestly  theocracy 
it  puts  that  of  the  God-knower,  as  that  which  is  to 
bring  in  the  consummation  of  the  world  drama. 

This  is  the  prophetic  interpretation  of  the  Mes- 
sianic idea  and  it  was  in  this  sense,  as  we  shall  see, 
that  Jesus  must  have  conceived  of  His  Own  Messiah- 
ship.  It  is  the  highest  religious  and  moral  concep- 
tion possible.  The  goal  of  humanity  is  not  to  be 
reached  through  conquest  (as  in  the  kingly  Messianic 
idea),  nor  by  a  stupendous  miracle  (as  in  the  priestly 
Messianic  idea),  but  through  divinely  guided  moral 
leadership,  following  a  program  of  suffering  service, 
establishing  the  universal  community — the  reign 
of  God   (prophetic,   Messianic,   Universalism).     In 


44      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

this  community  exploitation  whether  by  kings  or 
priests  is  necessarily  self -excluded. 

We  have  now  seen  how  the  prophets  discovered : 
(i)  the  value  of  the  individual ;  (2)  the  meaning  of 
history  as  related  to  a  divine  plan ;  (3)  the  univer- 
sal scope  of  that  plan  to  include  all  mankind;  (4) 
the  fact  that  the  human  race  is  one  as  God  is  one; 
and  (5)  the  means  of  moral  leadership  whereby  the 
prophets  believe  that  the  triumph  of  God's  reign 
on  earth  is  to  be  secured. 

We  have  next  the  painful  task  of  turning  from  this 
glorious  vision  to  the  actual  historical  development 
as  it  was  largely  moulded  by  the  enemies  of  the 
prophets,  the  priestly  aristocrats  and  exploiters  of 
religion. 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  45 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   PRIESTHOOD   ESTABLISHES   A   MONOPOLY   AND 

DEVELOPS  A  LEGALISTIC  ETHIC  PRIESTLY 

THEOLOGY 

One  of  the  greatest  contributions  of  the  "Higher 
Criticism"  to  the  cause  of  the  prophetic  religion 
has  been  the  uncovering  of  the  story  of  priestly 
aggrandisement  through  intrigue  and  of  the  literary 
devices  by.  which  the  priests  covered  their  tracks 
so  skilfully  as  to  deceive  subsequent  generations  for 
two  millenniums  and  a  half.  We  will  now  briefly 
recapitulate  the  results  of  these  critical  and  histor- 
ical investigations. 

I 

After  the  settlement  of  the  Israelites  in  Pales- 
tine priestly  colleges  began  to  grow  up  on  the  site 
of  various  Amorite  shrines  which  were  converted 
into  Israelite  holy  places  by  being  associated  with 
incidents  in  the  lives  of  the  patriarchs. 

The  judicial  functions  of  the  priests,  as  we  have 
already  seen,  had  put  into  their  hands  a  powerful 
weapon  of  exploitation  which  enabled  them  to  con- 
spire with  the  kings  and  nobles  to  "grind  the  face 
of  the  poor." 

Owing  to  their  proximity  to  the  kingly  court  cer- 
tain of  the  shrines  soon  won  greater  prestige,  influ- 
ence and  wealth — Bethel  in  the  Northern  kingdom 


46      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

and  Jerusalem  in  the  Southern.  In  place  of  the 
harmony  that  had  previously  existed  rivalry,  com- 
petition and  jealousy  began  to  develop  between 
the  different  holy  places. 

II 

A  new  stage  began  after  the  fall  of  the  northern 
kingdom  which  had  greatly  weakened  the  prestige 
of  the  local  cults,  though  Bethel  continued  suffi- 
ciently important  to  hold  the  envious  regard  of 
Jerusalem.  Not  content  with  its  position  of  superi- 
ority over  the  other  local  shrines  the  ambitious 
Jerusalem  priesthood  desired  a  complete  monopoly 
of  the  priestly  prerogatives.  Their  opportunity 
came  and  their  plans  were  matured  in  the  reign  of 
Josiah — a  weak  and  superstitious  king — who  was 
readily  made  the  mere  tool  of  the  priestly  faction. 
They  now  planned  to  use  the  secular  arm  of 
the  monarch  to  kill  off  or  to  subordinate  their 
priestly  rivals  as  in  the  past  they  had  dealt  with  the 
prophets. 

The  first  step  in  the  conspiracy  is  to  forge  a  new 
version  of  the  customary  law  and  rewrite  the  his- 
tory of  Israel  to  make  it  appear  that  Jehovah  Him- 
self expressly  desired  that  His  cultus  should  be 
concentrated  at  Jerusalem  and  there  hold  a  com- 
plete monopoly.  Provision  was  made  in  this  law 
for  the  destruction  of  the  non-Jerusalemic  temples 
and  for  the  bringing  of  their  priests  to  the  capital 
in  a  menial  position.1 

1  Deut.  7:  5. 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  47 

In  this  code  recognition  is  given  to  the  monarchy 
and  also  to  the  office  of  the  prophet,  but  the  mon- 
arch is  instructed  to  follow  obediently  the  law  (made 
by  the  priests  in  their  own  interest)  and  the  prophet 
is  restricted  to  exercising  the  mere  function  of  pre- 
diction. He  is  forbidden  to  teach  anything  con- 
trary to  what  the  priests  have  written  in  this  law 
and  by  implication  is  not  to  concern  himself  with 
present-day  issues.  His  position  is  rendered  very 
precarious  by  the  provision  that  in  the  event  of 
the  failure  of  any  of  his  predictions  he  is  to  be  put 
to  death  as  a  false  and  presumptuous  prophet.1 
Traces  of  the  prophetic  influence  are  supposed  to 
be  found  in  the  presence  of  the  provisions  for  the 
protection  of  the  poor  which  are  retained  from  the 
earlier  mishpat  and  are  even  extended.  But  the 
value  of  the  humane  provisions  was  subsequently 
nullified  by  the  simple  fact  that  they  were  not  en- 
forced. On  the  side  of  religion  the  rights  of  the 
laity  were  restricted  by  withdrawing  from  them 
the  privilege  of  sacrificing,  which  had  been  recog- 
nized in  the  Code  of  the  Covenant. 

The  success  of  the  forgery  was  immediate.  Its 
influence  was  more  enduring  than  even  that  of  the 
later  clerical  forgery  known  as  the  pseudo-Isidorian 
Decretals.  The  account  of  the  reforms  of  Josiah 
in  the  Second  Book  of  Kings,  chapter  22,  f,  reveals 
the  extent  to  which  foreign  elements  had  been  ad- 
mitted to  the  temple  of  Jehovah.  These  recog- 
nized abuses  might  serve  as  a  seeming  justification 
1  Deut.  13: 1;  18:20-22. 


48      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

for  the  severe  measures  employed.  But  the  real 
object  aimed  at  by  the  priests  in  Jerusalem  comes 
out  in  the  treatment  accorded  the  temples  and 
shrines  outside  Jerusalem,  which  had  hitherto  shared 
the  priestly  vested  rights  that  the  Jerusalem  priest- 
hood now  desired  completely  to  monopolize.  It 
was  against  the  temple  of  Jehovah  at  Bethel,  which 
had  early  received  the  bitter  denunciations  of  the 
prophet  Amos,  and  the  other  hillside  altars  in  Sa- 
maria that  the  most  drastic  measures  were  taken. 
Not  only  were  the  altars  destroyed  but  their  offi- 
ciating priests  were  massacred.  Also  all  wizards 
and  clairvoyants,  all,  in  fact,  who  were  in  any  sense 
rivals  to  the  oracle  of  the  temple  in  Jerusalem  were 
suppressed. 

The  priests  who  had  officiated  at  the  hillside 
altars  in  the  kingdom  of  Judah  were  not  massacred 
but  their  treatment  was  severe.  After  their  shrines 
had  been  desecrated  they  were  brought  to  the  tem- 
ple at  Jerusalem  and  degraded  to  the  position  of 
temple  servants,  whose  office  was  to  perform  the 
more  menial  tasks  connected  with  the  worship. 
This  movement  received  the  approval  of  the  prophet 
Ezekiel  who  regarded  it  as  a  just  punishment  for 
their  practices.1 

What  was  the  net  result?  Certain  of  the  more 
flagrant  heathen  rites  were  abolished.  The  country 
priests,  were  taken  away  from  the  people.  This 
may  have  been  a  blessing  to  the  peasants  though 
it  left  them  without  any  religious  leadership  in 
1  Ezek.  44: 10. 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  49 

place  of  an  evil  one.  As  we  have  seen,  the  provi- 
sions for  the  amelioration  of  the  lot  of  the  poor  re- 
mained unenforced. 

On  the  whole,  it  was  a  sweeping  victory  of  the 
priests  over  the  prophets.  The  latter  are  subor- 
dinated to  the  control  of  the  priestly  document.  The 
principle  of  priestly  authority,  which  the  prophets 
had  always  held  to  be  a  usurpation  contrary  to 
the  mishpat  of  Jehovah,  received  recognition.  The 
underlying  principle  of  the  Amorite  cultus  that 
religion  was  essentially  a  matter  of  sacrifice,  and 
that  the  favor  of  Jehovah  was  to  be  retained  by  a 
particular  form  of  worship,  now  triumphs  over 
the  prophetic  principle  that  the  protection  of  Je- 
hovah can  only  be  expected  by  a  state  where  justice 
and  love  of  mercy  prevail.  Most  important  of  all 
the  principle  of  legalism  in  place  of  the  principle  of 
direct  spiritual  guidance  through  enlightened  leader- 
ship was  firmly  established.  "The  interposition  of 
a  law  as  an  absolute  authority  between  God  and  the 
human  soul  is  opposed  to  the  very  core  and  center 
of  prophetic  teaching. "  l 

III 

The  prophets  of  Jerusalem  seem  to  have  been 
parties  to  this  priestly  coup  d'etat.  But  it  is  not 
always  borne  in  mind  that  the  prophets  in  question 
belong  to  the  supporters  of  the  established  order. 
They  were  the  "prophesiers  of  smooth  things" 
or  "false  prophets."  After  the  reform  they  went 
1  Marti,  op.  cit.  p.  289. 


50      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

about  declaring  that  now  that  the  temple  worship 
had  been  purified  and  the  hillside  altars  destroyed 
according  to  the  Will  of  Jehovah,  His  people  could 
rest  assured  in  the  confidence  that  His  Omnipo- 
tent protection  would  deliver  them  from  the  con- 
quering powers  of  Egypt  and  Babylon.  This  false 
confidence  was  denounced  by  Jeremiah  (so  far  as 
we  know,  the  only  surviving  adherent  of  the  ancient 
insurgent  school  of  prophecy)  as  a  superstition 
founded  upon  "lying  words."1  When  the  people 
were  flocking  to  the  temple  seeking  for  protection, 
after  Josiah  had  been  slain  by  Pharaoh  Necho,  the 
prophet  declared  that  the  temple  in  which  they  were 
mistakenly  putting  their  trust  was  no  better  than 
a  den  of  thieves  in  the  eyes  of  Jehovah.  It  could 
expect  only  the  destruction  that  had  previously 
been  meted  out  to  the  temple  in  Shiloh. 

In  Jeremiah,  chapter  28,  we  learn  how  bitterly 
he  opposed  the  false  prophets.  In  his  encounter 
with  Hananiah,  one  of  their  leaders,  he  declares 
that  the  people  will  go  into  exile  and  that  the 
prophet  himself  will  be  overtaken  by  death  within 
two  years,  which  prediction  was  fulfilled. 

IV 

During  the  exile  not  only,  on  the  one  side,  did 
the  prophetic  theology  reach  its  acme  of  develop- 
ment in  the  humanitarian  mysticism  and  univer- 
salism  of  the  Great  Unknown,  but,  on  the  other, 
the  legalistic  type  of  religion  was  being  elaborated 
ijer.  7:4. 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  51 

by  its  adherents.  They  spent  their  time  of  waiting 
in  elaborating  a  code  of  laws  which  would  greatly 
enhance  the  priestly  control.  The  result  is  found 
in  what  is  known  as  the  Priestly  Code.  This  code 
was  later  to  be  published  under  the  sanction  of  the 
name  of  Moses  who  was  claimed  as  its  author. 

During  the  exile  the  prophet  Ezekiel  undertook 
to  synthesize  the  priestly  and  prophetic  elements 
of  religion.  "Born  in  Jerusalem  of  priestly  family, 
he  grew  up  under  the  shadow  of  the  temple  and 
under  the  teaching  of  Jeremiah.  Both  of  these 
powerful  influences  may  be  traced  throughout  all 
his  work."1  He  also  tries  his  hand  at  code  making 
but  the  authority  which  he  claims  for  it  is  that  of 
his  own  prophetic  vision.  It  won  no  popular  sup- 
port in  comparison  with  the  code  which  claimed 
the  authority  of  Moses.  He  embodies  the  cere- 
monial conception  of  holiness  and  looks  forward  to 
the  restoration  of  the  temple  and  of  the  priesthood 
to  a  power  greater  than  that  of  the  prince.  The 
priestly  monopoly,  prestige,  and  opportunities  for 
exploitation  are  increased. 

Ezekiel  embodies  a  seeming  appreciation  for  the 
prophetic  social  ideas  of  religion,  but  the  promi- 
nence which  he  gives  to  the  ceremonial  ideas  nulli- 
fies the  former.  He  was  utterly  unconscious  of 
the  radical  opposition  between  the  two  religious 
viewpoints.  Therefore,  his  influence,  like  that 
of  the  book  of  Deuteronomy,  contributed  to  the 

1  Kent,  "Student's  Old  Testament,"  vol.  VI,  p.  24. 
6 


52      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

ultimate  triumph  of  the  legalistic  and  ceremonial 
religion  over  that  of  the  prophets. 


As  a  result  of  the  Babylonian  captivity  the  Da- 
vidic  monarchy  was  deposed.  In  the  place  of  it 
the  Jewish  theocracy  had  the  control  of  the  local 
administration  of  government.  Those  who  re- 
turned from  the  captivity,  at  least  some  of  them, 
for  a  time  cherished  the  hope  of  again  establishing 
an  independent  national  existence  under  Zerub- 
babel,  a  prince  of  the  house  of  David,  as  king.  This 
hope  was  voiced  by  the  "regular"  prophets  Haggai 
and  Zechariah  who  hailed  him  as  "Messiah." 
These  local  references  were  later  embodied  in  the 
traditional  "Messianic  prophecy"  and  were  later 
supposed  by  some  to  be  predictions  relating  to  our 
Lord.  These  prophets,  the  mouthpieces  of  the 
priesthood,  had  been  proclaiming  that  the  protec- 
tion of  Jehovah  could  not  be  counted  upon  till  the 
work  of  the  restoration  of  the  temple  had  been  seri- 
ously undertaken.  The  following  passage  taken 
from  an  insurgent  prophet  is  supposed  to  protest 
against  this  view: 

Thus  saith  Jehovah,  Heaven  is  my  home, 

And  the  earth  is  my  footstool; 

What  manner  of  house  is  this  that  ye  would  build  for 

me? 
And  what  manner  of  place  is  my  habitation? 
All  these  my  hand  hath  made, 
And  all  these  are  mine,  is  Jehovah's  oracle. 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  53 

But  for  these  do  I  have  regard,  for  the  afflicted, 
And  him  who  is  broken  in  spirit,  and  who  trembles  at  my 
word. 

He  then  adds  a  bitter  description  of  the  practices 
of  the  cult  in  which  he  ranks  the  ritualistic  acts  of 
purification  as  no  better  than  acts  of  ceremonial 
defilement. 

He  who  slaughters  an  ox  is  also  a  man-slayer. 

He  who  sacrifices  a  sheep  also  strangles  a  dog; 

He  who  brings  up  an  offering  also  sheds  swine's  blood. 

He  who  offers  incense  as  a  memorial  also  blesses  an  idol. 

As  these  have  chosen  their  ways, 

And  taken  pleasure  in  their  abominations; 

So  will  I  choose  wanton  outrages  for  them, 

And  will  bring  on  them  what  they  dread; 

Because  when  I  called  none  answered, 

When  I  spoke  they  did  not  heed. 

But  they  did  what  was  evil  in  my  sight, 

And  chose  that  in  which  I  had  no  delight.1 

The  prophet  Zechariah  for  his  part  retorts  with 
a  denunciation  of  such  insurgent  prophets.  Their 
complete  extermination  is  foretold.  If  any  one 
should  presume  to  prophesy,  even  his  parents  would 
brand  him  as  one  who  lies  in  the  Name  of  Jehovah, 
and  with  a  sword  in  their  hand  would  thrust  him 
through.  The  prophets  who  survived  will  repent 
and  renounce  their  prophetic  claims,  admitting 
that  they  are  in  reality  but  farmers  and  herdmen 
(mere  laymen).2 

1  Isa.  66,  Kent's  version. 
2Zech.  13:  3-5,  Kent's  version. 


54      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

VI 

The  return  of  the  first  company  of  the  survivors 
of  the  exile  in  the  reign  of  the  Persian  Artaxerxes, 
under  the  layman  Nehemiah,  inaugurated  the  era 
which  was  to  witness  the  final  stage  in  priestly  ex- 
ploitation. This  was  founded  upon  the  work  of 
Ezra  and  the  other  scribes  who  came  with  them  in 
the  second  company  of  returned  exiles  bringing 
the  third  codification  of  the  Jewish  law  which  had 
been  produced  by  them  during  the  exile.  This  code, 
like  Deuteronomy,  was  also  predated  back  to  Moses, 
and  the  history  of  Israel  was  re-written  as  an 
historic  romance  in  which  the  priesthood  are  the 
heroes. 

When  we  turn  from  reading  the  prophets  to  con- 
sider the  Priestly  Code  we  are  conscious  of  a  com- 
plete change  of  atmosphere.  In  place  of  the  pure 
air  of  the  mountain  height  we  breathe  the  dead  air 
of  a  confined  dwelling.  In  place  of  the  prophetic 
concern  with  world  history,  with  righteousness, 
justice,  brotherhood,  we  see  priests  whose  idea  of 
serving  God  is  by  means  of  inspecting  the  entrails 
of  slain  victims,  and  by  the  ritualistically  correct 
handling  of  kidneys  and  other  internal  organs  of 
bulls  and  goats. 

Holiness  is  no  longer  associated  with  the  heroic 
God-conscious  type  of  life,  with  suffering  service, 
but  with  acts  of  ritualistic  purification.  In  place 
of  the  great  missionary  Messianic  ideal,  the  national 
aspiration  seeks  merely  the  continuation  of  pros- 
perity,  protection  from  enemies  and  wild  beasts, 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  55 

a  growth  in  numbers,  and  the  perpetuity  of  the 
worship  of  the  temple.  In  place  of  the  vision  of 
the  nations  flocking  to  Jehovah  to  learn  His  Will, 
there  is  the  conception  of  the  Israelite  nation  in- 
creasing through  the  addition  of  proselytes. 

In  place  of  the  prophetic  interpretation  of  history 
with  its  developmental  idea,  we  find  its  opposite. 
Even  while  introducing  radical  innovations  into 
the  law  they  are  represented  as  having  had  a 
full  fledged  existence  even  in  the  days  of  Moses. 
Whereas  Ezekiel  had  proposed  introducing  changes 
in  his  idea  of  the  restored  temple  at  Jerusalem,  the 
priestly  method  is  to  represent  that  its  own  idea 
had  already  been  historically  embodied  in  the  so- 
called  "Tabernacle."  Ezekiel,  as  we  have  seen, 
recognized  the  fact  that  the  introduction  of  the 
priests  who  had  officiated  at  the  hillside  shrine  into 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem  in  a  menial  capacity  was 
an  innovation.  The  priestly  writers,  on  the  con- 
trary, represent  the  institution  of  the  Levites  as 
having  existed  from  the  time  of  Moses. 

It  was  easy  enough  to  impose  upon  the  ignorance 
of  the  common  people.  The  priests  had  only  the 
knowledge  and  insight  of  the  prophets  to  fear. 
While  they  feared  and  hated  the  living  prophet 
they  could  afford  to  do  honor  to  those  who  had  de- 
livered their  message  and  died.  Considering  the 
methods  of  suppression  employed  by  the  priests 
it  at  first  seems  a  problem  how  any  of  the  pro- 
phetic writings  have  been  allowed  to  survive.  The 
explanation    is   not    difficult.     The    prophets    had 


56      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

foretold  the  exile.  The  priests  had  said  that  the 
temple  was  a  talisman  against  that  catastrophe. 
History  had  proved  that  the  prophets  had  told  the 
truth.  This  created  a  wholesome  respect  for  the 
prophetic  message.  It  explains  why  the  social  laws 
for  the  protection  of  the  poor  which  the  prophets 
had  advocated  were  embodied  and  even  extended 
in  the  Priestly  Code.  It  was  to  provide  a  means  of 
avoiding  a  repetition  of  the  calamity.  The  changed 
attitude  toward  the  prophets  is  expressed  by  the 
Chronicler  who  writes  at  this  period.  He  con- 
demns those  who  had  not  listened  to  the  prophetic 
warning.  "  But  they  mocked  the  messengers  of  God 
and  despised  his  words  and  misused  his  prophets 
until  the  wrath  of  Jehovah  arose  against  His  people, 
till  there  was  no  remedy.  So  He  brought  the  king 
of  the  Chaldees  upon  them.    .    .    .  "* 

This  posthumous  honor  is  of  the  letter  not  of  the 
spirit.  There  is  a  note  of  self-congratulation  im- 
plying that  "If  we  had  lived  in  the  days  of  the 
fathers  we  had  not  been  partakers  with  them  in 
the  blood  of  the  prophets."  But  from  the  ethical 
and  theological  points  of  view  they  remained  the 
sons  of  those  who  had  slain  the  prophets.  The 
priesthood  goes  on  increasing  its  own  influence  by 
the  theology  which  it  now  produces,  creating  a 
God  in  its  own  image.  He  is  a  capricious  God, 
easily  provoked  to  take  awful  vengeance  and  has 
constantly  to  be  placated  by  sacrifice.  He  must 
be  cajoled  by  priestly  intervention  just  as  He  had 
l\\  Chronicles,  36:  14  f. 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  57 

been  by  Moses  in  days  gone  by.1  He  is  an  Oriental 
despot  Who  can  only  deal  with  the  common  people 
through  official  go-betweens.  If  any  one  else 
should  presume  to  approach  Him  or  burn  incense 
to  Him,  He  would  consume  them  in  His  wrath. 
Righteous  conduct  seems  to  concern  Him  less  than 
the  correct  ceremonial  deference  paid  to  His  Person. 
The  marks  of  holiness  are  external  rather  than 
spiritual.  "Whoever  belongs  to  the  community 
and  wishes  to  take  part  in  the  religious  festivals, 
either  slave  or  stranger,  must  be  circumcised ;  who- 
ever fails  to  comply  with  this  requirement  commits 
a  mortal  sin.  Just  as  the  priest's  code  throws  back 
the  Sabbath  to  creation,  so  it  refers  the  institution 
of  circumcision  to  the  age  of  Abraham."2 

"The  importance  which  was  attached  to  these 
external  marks  of  membership  in  the  congregation 
of  Jehovah,  and  of  distinction  from  other  peoples, 
was  a  consequence  of  the  position  assigned  by  the 
legal  religion  to  the  Israelites  among  other  nations 
in  their  relation  to  Jehovah.  .  .  .  Jehovah  and 
Israel  remained  indissolubly  united.  Even  though 
Jehovah  was  no  longer  what  the  peasant  religion 
wanted  Him  to  be,  even  though  He  has  ceased  to 
be  exclusively  the  Lord  of  Israel,  and  has  become 
the  Lord  of  the  whole  world,  yet  He  has  chosen 
Israel  as  His  peculiar  people  and  restricted  salva- 
tion to  the  Jews.  .  .  .  Whoever  wishes  to  share 
in  the  offer  of  salvation  must  become  a  proselyte, 
a  member  of  the  Jewish  congregation.  In  reality 
1  Deut.  9:  14.  2  Marti,  op.  cit.  p.  211. 


58      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

the  Gentiles  only  existed  for  two  objects:  first,  that 
the  Lord  of  the  whole  earth  may  show  His  power 
upon  them  as  He  did  upon  the  Egyptians,  and  on 
the  other  hand,  that  they  may  fill  the  temple  with 
their  riches  and  perform  menial  services  for  the 
Jews  in  their  cattle  raising  and  tillage."1 

"A  further  consequence  of  the  legal  religion  was 
that  God  was  removed  much  further  from  His 
people,  this  in  spite  of  the  tenacity  with  which  it 
clung  to  the  belief  that  Israel  was  God's  favorite 
people,  and  that  Israel  and  Jehovah  belonged  to 
each  other  forever.  For  the  law,  as  we  have  seen, 
is  interposed  between  them  and  Jehovah,  the  God 
of  the  whole  world,  becomes  an  altogether  trans- 
cendent Deity.  The  close  personal  relation  be- 
tween God  and  the  prophet,  not  to  speak  of  the 
intimate  and  familiar  conversation  with  God  on 
the  old  'high  places'  are  things  of  the  past.  Such 
an  awe  attaches  to  the  divine  Name  Jehovah  that 
it  is  unutterable.  God's  revelation  in  the  law  is 
final,  and  in  the  cultus  a  carefully  graded  hierarchy 
intervenes  between  the  layman  and  God."2 

The  most  important  and  radical  antagonism  be- 
tween the  prophets  and  the  priestly  legalistic  relig- 
ion remains  the  ethico- theological.  Though  the 
priests  have  accepted  prophetic  monotheism  they 
have  discarded  its  essential  corollary  of  universal- 
ism,  in  place  of  which  we  have  the  narrowest  priestly 
particularism  fostering  the  pride  and  arrogance  of 

1  Marti,  op.  cit.  p.  2 1 1  f .     Cf .  Haggai  2:7,  Isa.  60 :  5  f ,  61 :  5-7. 

2  Marti,  op.  cit.  p.  219-220. 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  59 

caste  and  race.  Opposed  to  the  idea  of  the  direct 
personal  guidance  of  the  individual  and  the  com- 
munity we  have  an  insistence  upon  the  intermed- 
dling of  an  official  class.  In  place  of  an  immanent, 
personal  divine  Friend  and  Father  the  priests  pre- 
sent an  unapproachable,  transcendent  God.  In 
place  of  the  idea  of  progressive  revelation  and  guid- 
ance, revelation  becomes  a  matter  of  a  closed  book. 
The  moral  degradation  to  which  this  system  led 
reached  its  lowest  level  when  the  high  priestly  office 
came  to  be  sold  to  the  highest  bidder  as  we  read 
in  the  Second  Book  of  Maccabees,  chapter  4. 

What  is  believed  to  be  a  prophetic  fragment  of  un- 
known authorship  belonging  to  this  period  of  corrup- 
tion which  came  under  the  rule  of  the  Antiochian 
dynasty,  is  preserved  in  the  following  passage : 
But  the  teraphim  speak  vanity 
And  the  diviners  see  lies 
And  idle  dreams  they  relate 
And  in  vain  they  offer  comfort ; 
Therefore  the  people  wander  like  sheep 
They  suffer  because  there  is  no  shepherd. 
My  wrath  is  hot  upon  the  shepherds 
And  upon  the  he-goats  will  I  bring  punishments.1 
Thus  saith  Jehovah  to  me, 
Shepherd  the  flock  of  the  slaughter  whose  possessors 

slaughter  them  and  hold  themselves  not  guilty: 
And  they  who  sell  them  say,  Blessed  be  Jehovah,  for  I 

am  rich! 
And  their  shepherds  have  no  compassion  upon  them.2 

1  Zech.  10:  2,  3,  Kent's  version. 

2  Zech.  1 1 :  4-6,  Kent's  version. 


60      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Thus  did  the  prophets  continue  to  bear  witness 
against  the  priestly  exploiters  but  were  powerless 
to  prevent  their  evil  practices. 

We  shall  now  examine  the  grounds  in  fact  which 
justified  such  prophetic  denunciations  as  the  fore- 
going. 

VII 

Having  secured  the  necessary  theological  and 
legal  background  in  the  Priestly  Code — the  priests 
were  soon  able  to  exploit  their  powers  to  their  own 
economic  advantage.  "While  the  priests  had  to 
acknowledge  the  derivation  of  their  privileges  from 
the  Law,  what  they  derived  was  something  very 
substantial.  They  drew  unto  themselves  a  steady 
proportion  of  the  riches  of  the  people.  It  was  not 
only  a  privileged  position  which  the  law  gave  them ; 
it  was  material  wealth."1  Miraculous  powers  had 
been  ascribed  in  the  priestly  narrative  to  Aaron's 
rod — and  the  belief  in  the  magical  powers  of  the 
priests  was  heightened  by  the  stories  of  the  plagues 
of  Egypt — the  passage  of  the  Red  Sea,  etc.  It  was 
not  on  the  power  of  legal  enforcement  but  upon 
the  cultivation  of  superstitious  fear  that  the  priests 
relied  to  secure  their  exactions — and  with  apparent 
success. 

The  Temple  from  the  time  of  the  Exile  to  that 
of  Christ  became  not  only  the  great  religious  monop- 
oly-of  the  Jews  but  also  their  great  financial  Trust.2 

1  Edwyn  Bevan — "Jerusalem  Under  the  High  Priests" — 
London,  1912,  p.  9. 

2  On  this  subject  see  "Jerusalem,"  vol.  I,  Ch.  VII,  pp.  351- 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  61 

The  priests  were  the  largest  non-productive  class 
— and  together  with  the  Levites  and  other  Temple 
servants  numbered  many  thousands.  The  Tem- 
ple and  the  individual  priests  must  have  held  large 
landed  estates.2  Because  of  their  large  revenues 
the  priests  had  all  the  advantages — and  they  held 
a  monopoly  of  various  forms  of  trade. 

It  requires  twenty  pages  of  Prof.  Schiirer's  "His- 
tory of  the  Jewish  People  in  the  Time  of  Christ" 
(English  Translation,  div.  II,  vol.  I,  pp.  234-254) 
to  enumerate  and  briefly  describe  the  priestly  emol- 
uments in  the  time  of  Jesus.  Of  this  we  give  the 
briefest  summary: 

Of  the  sacrificial  victims  the  priests  received  the 
whole  of  the  (1)  sin  offerings,  and  (2)  the  trespass 
offerings.  They  got  the  largest  share  of  the  (3) 
meat  offerings.  All  of  these  sacrifices  were  of  fre- 
quent occurrence.  The  (4)  "shewbread"  also  fell 
to  their  lot.  All  of  these  could  be  consumed  only 
by  the  priests. 

Of  the  (5)  thank  offerings  the  priests  received 
the  breast  and  right  shoulder,  of  the  (6)  burnt  of- 
ferings they  received  the  hides,  from  the  sale  of 
which  Philo  estimates  they  received  a  large  income. 
The  hides  or  fleeces  of  all  offerings  fell  to  the  priests. 

Though  the  sum  derived  from  these  sources  was 
large  it  was  far  less  than  that  from  the  dues  levied 
upon  the   fruits  of  the  soil   and   the  offspring  of 

366,  George  Adam  Smith  and  Schiirer's  "History  of  the  Jews  in 
the  Time  of  Jesus  Christ" — div.  II,  vol.  I,  pp.  234-254. 
2  Smith,  op.  cit.  p.  360. 


62      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

cattle  which  included,  (i)  the  first  fruits  of  wheat, 
barley,  grapes,  fig  trees,  pomegranates,  olives  and 
honey — thus  the  priests  received  the  earliest  crops 
of  the  year.  Those  near  Jerusalem  brought  fresh 
fruits — those    further   away    brought    them   dried. 

(2)  Next  came  the  terumah — distinct  from  the 
first  fruits — which  meant  the  best  and  choicest  of 
the  fruits  and  vegetables.  This  amounted  to  from 
one-sixtieth    to   one-fortieth    of    the   entire   crops. 

(3)  Of  the  rest  of  the  crops  a  "tithe,"  i.e.  one- 
tenth,  was  paid  to  the  Levites,  who  gave  one-tenth 
of  their  share  to  the  priests.  (4)  Of  the  kneaded 
dough  each  family  must  give  one-twenty-fourth 
to  the  priests  (public  bakers  gave  one-forty-eighth) 
— whether  the  flours  used  were  wheat,  rye,  barley, 
spelt  or  oats.  In  addition  (a)  the  firstborn  of  all 
the  cattle,  when  male,  belonged  to  the  priests.  If 
clean  (i.e.,  suitable  for  sacrifice  or  food)  they  were 
given  in  kind.  When  (b)  unclean  (i.e.,  ass,  horse, 
and  camel)  they  were  to  be  redeemed  by  payment 
of  value  plus  one-fifth,  (c)  A  tax  of  five  shekels 
had  to  be  paid  by  rich  and  poor  alike  for  every  first- 
born son. 

In  addition  to  the  sacrifices  the  priests  received 
the  shoulder,  two  cheeks  and  stomach  of  all  animals 
slain  for  food.  They  also  had  a  share  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  sheep  shearing.  Besides  these,  the  votive 
offerings — the  bans,  indemnities,  and  voluntary 
gifts  and  offerings  enriched  the  unproductive  priest- 
hood. The  Temple  also  levied  a  tax  of  one-half 
shekel  on  all  males  over  twenty-one  years. 


Priesthood  Establishes  a  Monopoly  63 

The  priests  owned  slaves.  Whether  they  were 
purchased  directly  or  no  is  not  told — but  probably 
the  majority  in  any  case  came  into  slavery  as  the 
result  of  debts  which  they  could  not  pay  their 
priestly  creditors. 

In  summing  the  matter  up  George  Adam  Smith 
says:  "From  all  this  we  see  not  only  how  large  in 
these  later  times  the  revenues  of  the  priesthood 
and  temple  had  become,  but  what  a  busy  center 
the  latter  was  both  of  trade  and  finance.  Among 
the  chief  priests  there  were  many  with  large  for- 
tunes. The  High  Priest  and  his  counsellors  were 
trustees  and  accountants  on  a  large  scale — the  more 
so  that  there  was,  except  for  a  part  of  the  period, 
no  separate  civil  authority.  But  they  were  also 
great  traders.  To  assist  them  in  the  reception, 
investment  and  distribution  of  funds,  they  had  a 
great  staff  of  officials,  duly  organized  and  entitled. 
But,  indeed,  in  those  days  nearly  every  priest  must 
have  been  a  trader."  l 

Thus  the  priest  was  not  only  a  spiritual  middle- 
man— but  he  was  the  economic  middleman  of 
trade — who  handled  what  others  had  produced 
and  exploited  the  needs  of  both  producer  and  con- 
sumer. 

If  Jeremiah  had  been  justified  in  calling  the  Tem- 
ple in  his  day  "a  den  of  robbers" — how  vastly  more 
fitting  was  the  same  characterization  of  it  by  Jesus 
in  His  day — when  He  aimed  at  its  complete  over- 

1  George  Adam  Smith,  op.  cit.  p.  366. 


64      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

throw.  The  Temple  at  Jerusalem  was  as  truly  a 
Temple  of  Mammon  as  the  Bank  of  England  or 
the  New  York  Stock  Exchange.  But  unlike  the 
latter  it  pretended  to  be  the  Temple  of  God. 


The  Apocalypses  Unmasked  65 


CHAPTER  V 

THE   APOCALYPSES   UNMASKED 

When  Antiochus  Epiphanes  came  to  the  throne 
of  Syria  of  which  Judea  was  then  a  part,  the  Jew- 
ish religion  had  seemingly  but  little  hold  left  on 
the  popular  mind.  Especially  among  the  educated 
classes  there  had  been  a  turning  away  from  things 
Jewish  to  things  Grecian.  This  tendency  was  en- 
couraged in  every  way  by  the  king,  who  was  an  ar- 
dent champion  of  the  Greek  Kultur.  At  length 
he  thought  the  time  had  come  when  the  last  rem- 
nant of  expiring  Judaism  could  be  extirpated  by 
the  use  of  force.  He  issued  a  royal  decree  abolish- 
ing sacrifices  to  Jehovah  and  attaching  the  death 
penalty  to  the  observance  of  the  Jewish  ceremonial 
law.  He  caused  the  temple  of  Jehovah  to  be  dedi- 
cated to  Zeus,  the  chief  god  of  the  Greek  Pantheon. 
The  Hebrew  sacred  books  were  confiscated. 

This  period  of  oppression  led  to  a  violent  reac- 
tion. The  indifferent  were  called  back  to  a  re- 
newed loyalty  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers.  Many 
Jews  met  the  martyr's  death  for  refusing  to  sacrifice 
to  the  pagan  god,  or  to  commit  ceremonial  acts 
forbidden  by  the  Torah.  The  reaction  led,  further, 
to  the  successful  Maccabean  uprising  on  the  polit- 
ical side.  A  new  type  of  religious  writing  called  the 
Apocalyptic  was  called  into  existence  by  this  crisis, 
of  which  the  book  of  Daniel  was  the  first  product. 


66      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Without  disparaging  the  true  patriotism  of  the 
Maccabean  priests  we  may  say  that  both  the  polit- 
ical and  literary  movement  had  the  same  object, 
the  retrieving  of  their  fortunes  by  the  priests  through 
rallying  the  people  to  the  support  of  the  national 
religion  and  institutions. 

The  Apocalyptic  movement  was  a  desperate  de- 
vice born  of  a  desperate  emergency.  The  hand 
of  the  priestly  intriguer  is  to  be  discerned.  As  the 
Deuteronomic  and  Priestly  Codes  had  been  pre- 
dated and  vested  with  the  authority  of  Moses,  so 
by  the  same  familiar  priestly  device  the  Apocalyp- 
ses were  predated  and  furnished  with  the  authority 
of  a  recognized  prophet  whose  name  was  forged 
to  the  document.  As  the  priestly  writers  had  in- 
vented fictitious  characters  and  presented  them  as 
actors  in  historic  events  so  the  author  of  the  Apoc- 
alypse of  Daniel  invented  Shadrach,  Meshack 
and  Abednego  in  the  fiery  furnace  and  Daniel's 
den  of  lions,  to  illustrate  their  contention  that  all 
who  remained  loyal  to  Judaism  under  persecution 
might  hope  for  miraculous  deliverance.  But  if 
this  should  fail  they  added  still  another  promise 
that  all  who  should  die  for  the  faith  would  find  a 
happy  resurrection  from  the  dead  in  the  approach- 
ing epoch  of  the  Jewish  world  empire. 

In  this  writing  history  appears  in  the  form  of 
prophecy.  The  prophecy  is  alleged  to  have  come 
in  the  form  of  visions,  the  ultimate  object  of 
which  is  to  show  that  upon  the  ruins  of  the  world 
empires  of  Babylon,  Medea,  Persia  and  Macedon 


The  Apocalypses  Unmasked  67 

the  new  world  empire  is  to  be  miraculously  erected 
by  God. 

I 

The  theology  of  the  Apocalypses  is  distinctly 
of  the  priestly  variety  and  opposed  to  the  prophetic. 
The  Apocalyptic  idea  of  God  is  transcendent.  He 
no  longer  communes  with  men  directly  but  uses 
angels  as  His  mediators.  Accordingly  He  is  not 
conceived  as  working  through  world  history,  as 
the  prophets  held.  Instead  He  lets  it  take  its  evil 
course  till  He  is  ready  to  smash  it  and  erect  a  new 
world  order  on  the  ruins  of  the  old.  Thus  the 
prophetic  developmental  idea  is  lost. 

The  prophetic  universalism  is  also  lost.  Not  the 
conversion  but  the  destruction  of  the  heathen  is 
anticipated.  Instead  of  the  prophetic  anticipation 
of  a  world  federation  there  is  to  be  a  world  hegem- 
ony of  the  Jews  in  which  they  will  exact  tribute 
of  the  heathen  and  rule  them  with  a  rod  of  iron. 

The  prophetic  ethic  gives  place  to  the  ceremonial. 
The  heroes  of  Daniel  are  not  champions  of  the  poor, 
not  suffering  servants,  but  those  who  pray  toward 
Jerusalem,  refuse  to  eat  things  ceremonially  unclean, 
and  to  bow  down  to  idols. 

In  consequence  of  their  loyalty  Daniel  and  his 
associates  do  not  have  to  wait  till  after  death  for 
their  rewards,  but  rise  to  positions  of  wealth  and 
splendor  in  the  court  of  Babylon.  Wonderful 
opportunities  to  exploit  his  power  of  interpreting 
dreams  are  made  good  use  of  by  Daniel. 


68      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

The  Apocalypses  employed  the  obscure  allegori- 
cal form  in  order  that  their  real  meaning  might  be 
hidden  from  the  authorities  while  the  faithful  would 
be  able  to  discern  the  signs  which  were  promised 
as  immediately  preceding  the  expected  deliverance. 
Such  a  sign  is  found  in  Daniel  2 :  43 :  "  And  whereas 
you  saw  the  iron  mixed  with  miry  clay,  they  shall 
mingle  themselves  by  marriage  alliances,  but  they 
shall  not  cling  to  one  another,  even  as  iron  does 
not  mingle  with  clay."  This  was  a  covert  allusion 
to  two  unfortunate  intermarriages  between  the 
reigning  houses  of  Syria  and  Egypt.  The  words 
that  follow  are  intended  to  convey  to  the  enlight- 
ened reader  that  the  promised  deliverance  is  not 
far  off:  "And  in  the  days  of  these  kings  shall  the 
God  of  Heaven  set  up  a  kingdom  which  shall  never 
be  destroyed  nor  shall  the  sovereignty  be  left  to 
another  people;  but  it  shall  break  in  pieces  and 
destroy  all  these  kingdoms  and  it  shall  stand  for- 
ever. "  The  miraculous  nature  of  the  intervention 
is  insisted  upon  as  follows:  " Inasmuch  as  you  see 
that  a  stone  was  cut  out  of  the  mountain  but  not 
with  hands,  and  that  it  break  in  pieces  the  iron, 
the  brass,  the  clay,  the  silver  and  the  gold. "* 

II 

It  would  be  extremely  difficult  to  decide  how  far 

the  Apocalypses  represented  a  deliberate  fraud  on 

the  part  of  the  priests,  and  how  far  the  authors  of 

them  were  themselves  deceived  by  their  false  hopes. 

Daniel  2:44,  45. 


The  Apocalypses  Unmasked  69 

Many  passages  incorporated  into  some  of  them, 
especially  the  book  of  Enoch,  seem  to  have  the  ring 
of  genuine  sincerity.  This  book  is  quoted  as  gen- 
uine Scripture  in  our  canonical  book  of  Jude,  and 
there  are  many  passages  in  the  Gospels  that  seem 
to  be  paraphrases  of  passages  in  Enoch. 

For  the  most  part  the  Apocalypses  seem  to  have 
been  the  work  of  Pharisees.  This  sect  seems  to 
have  been  the  successor  of  the  sect  of  the  Assideans 
of  whom  we  hear  as  co-operating  for  a  time  with 
the  Maccabean  revolution.  They  seem  to  have 
been  advocates  of  non-resistance,  not  as  a  moral 
principle,  but  on  the  ground  that  human  effort 
would  be  valueless  to  accomplish  an  end  which  they 
held  could  be  accomplished  only  by  the  strength 
of  Omnipotence.  To  hasten  this  event  they  not 
only  observed  all  the  requirements  of  the  Torah 
but  insisted  in  addition  on  the  observance  of  a 
great  mass  of  oral  tradition  of  later  date.  They 
laid  emphasis  upon  the  doctrines  of  the  immor- 
tality of  the  soul,  of  the  existence  of  good  and  evil 
spirits,  and  of  predestination. 

These  doctrines,  so  strongly  resembling  the  famil- 
iar teachings  of  the  Persian  religion,  are  held  by 
Prof.  Lawrence  Mills  to  indicate  that  the  name 
Pharisee  was  applied  to  them  because  their  depend- 
ence upon  Persian  sources  was  recognized.  But 
the  important  matter  is  not  the  source  of  their 
views  but  the  views  themselves.  However,  a  cer- 
tain parallelism  between  the  Persian  Apocalyptic 


70      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

writings  and   the    Pharisee   Apocalypses   is   worth 
noting. 

The  survivals  of  the  Persian  Apocalypses  in  their 
present  form  are  dated  by  critics  between  the  third 
and  sixth  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  but  are 
held  by  Prof.  Mills  to  embody  fragments  of  early 
Apocalypses  antedating  the  appearance  of  the  book 
of  Daniel  among  the  Jews.  While  it  may  be  diffi- 
cult to  establish  the  fact  of  any  literary  dependence 
on  one  side  or  the  other,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  in 
each  case  the  Apocalyptic  literature  arose  among 
a  people  threatened  with  extinction,  and,  in  their 
despair,  looking  for  a  supernatural  deliverer.  It  is 
also  interesting  to  note  that  the  personal  figure  of 
the  promised  deliverer  has  far  greater  prominence 
in  the  Persian  than  in  the  Jewish  Apocalypses. 
Prof.  Lehmann  (in  Chantepie  de  la  Saussaye's 
Lehrbuch  der  Religionsgeschichte,  vol.  I,  p.  199) 
has  constructed  a  composite  Apocalypse  out  of  the 
Persian  material,  of  which  the  following  is  a  sum- 
mary:1 

In  the  period  of  the  last  three  millenniums  of  the 
world  history  the  power  of  evil  is  to  become  pre- 
dominant. The  oppression  of  the  righteous  by 
the  powers  of  evil  will  call  into  existence  prophets 
and  heroes  who  will  save  the  faithful  and  finally 
establish  the  supremacy  of  Ahura  Mazda  (the 
righteous  God)  forever.  The  coming  of  the  final 
struggle  will  be  heralded  by  signs  in  the  sun  and  the 

1  Cf.  Prof.  West's  Edition  of  the  Pahlavi  Texts  in  the  Sacred 
Books  of  the  East. 


The  Apocalypses  Unmasked  71 

moon,  by  earthquakes  and  tempests.  Fear  and 
terror  will  prevail  among  the  sons  of  light.  Hordes 
of  the  enemies  of  the  Persians  will  fall  upon  their 
land  and  turn  fertile  plains  into  deserts.  Many  who 
seek  to  save  their  lives  shall  narrowly  escape,  while 
their  wives,  children  and  property  will  be  destroyed. 
A  horde  of  demons  will  appear  from  the  East. 

The  hero  Hashedar,  the  first  son  of  Zoroaster,  the 
hero  of  the  first  of  the  future  thousand  year  epochs, 
is  to  be  born.  He  will  assemble  the  remnants  of  the 
faithful,  and  thrice  shall  he  defeat  the  enemy,  so 
that  the  prince  of  the  demons  with  all  his  followers 
will  be  summoned  against  him.  Then  the  right- 
eous God  will  send  His  messenger,  Sraosha,  and  the 
heavenly  hosts  to  the  rescue.  They  will  awaken 
the  son  of  Vistaspa  and  consecrate  the  sacred  fire 
and  water  together.  They  will  then  reestablish 
the  kingdom  of  the  faithful  by  destroying  the  rem- 
nants of  the  wicked  and  demolishing  the  heathen 
temples.  The  period  of  the  wolf  shall  end;  the 
period  of  the  lamb  shall  begin. 

Hushedar  Mah,  the  second  son  of  Zoroaster,  is 
to  be  the  hero  of  the  following  thousand  years. 
He  is  to  fight  against  serpents  and  demons,  and 
bring  about  a  period  of  peace  and  progress.  The 
science  of  medicine  is  to  make  such  progress  that 
men  are  to  discover  the  means  of  becoming  invul- 
nerable, and  hunger  will  gradually  diminish  so 
that  men  may  live  without  eating.  But  there  is 
to  be  a  lapse  from  faithfulness,  and  as  a  result 
Angra  Mainyu  (the  Devil  or  Satan)  so  revives  that 


72      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

he  is  able  to  unloose  the  dragon  Azi  Dahaka,  who 
has  been  bound  for  a  thousand  years,  and  this  mon- 
ster is  directed  by  him  to  attack  the  true  believers. 
A  third  of  all  living  men  are  to  be  destroyed.  The 
creation  prays  to  Ahura  Mazda  for  another  hero. 
Thereupon  God  calls  Keresaspa  who  slays  the 
dragon.  Discord  and  destruction  begin  to  disap- 
pear, but  the  final  triumph  of  good  awaits  the  third 
and  last  millennium. 

This  millennium  is  to  be  heralded  by  the  birth 
of  a  virgin  born  hero.  The  holy  maid  (Eretate 
Fehdra),  while  bathing  in  the  sacred  waters  of  the 
lake  Kasava  is  to  conceive  from  the  seed  of  the 
prophet  Zoroaster, — which  shall  have  been  pre- 
served to  that  end  by  thousands  of  the  spirits  of 
the  faithful.  She  is  to  bring  forth  a  son  called 
Saoshyant,  which  means  Saviour.  On  the  coming 
of  this  virgin-born  hero  the  dead  are  to  rise  and  body 
and  spirit  are  to  be  reunited.  All  mountains  and 
hills  will  melt  and  overflow  the  earth  in  a  molten 
mass.  This  will  utterly  destroy  the  wicked  but 
to  the  righteous  it  will  be  as  warm  milk.  Then  the 
final  conflict  between  the  powers  of  good  and  evil 
will  result  in  the  everlasting  triumph  of  the  former. 
Satan  is  to  be  bound  by  Ahura  Mazda,  and  with 
all  his  angels  the  devil  is  to  be  cast  down  and  de- 
stroyed in  the  molten  mass.  The  angels  of  light 
and  righteous  men  are  then  to  enter  into  a  state 
of  everlasting  perfection  and  joy. 

The  Persian  Apocalypse  differs  from  the  Jewish 
in  that  it  makes  use  of  distinctly  Persian  thoughts 


The  Apocalypses  Unmasked  73 

and  ideas  as  its  material.  In  spite  of  the  differences 
there  is  much  in  the  foregoing  that  bears  a  resem- 
blance to  passages  in  the  Apocalypse  of  John.  The 
references  to  earthquakes,  famines,  pestilences, 
signs  in  the  sun  and  moon,  wars,  and  calamities  bear 
a  resemblance  to  Apocalyptic  passages  in  the  Gos- 
pels. This  seems  to  have  been  common  material 
of  Persian,  Jewish  and  Christian  Apocalypses. 
This  additional  factor  they  also  have  in  common, 
that  the  deliverance  of  mankind  instead  of  coming 
through  moral  effort,  is  to  come  wholly  from  above 
by  the  intervention  of  God  Himself  or  Heaven-born 
heroes  or  Saviours  assisted  by  angels  and  archangels. 
In  all  of  this  it  differs  radically  both  from  the  religion 
of  the  Hebrew  prophets  and  that  of  the  prophet 
Zoroaster. 

Ill 
In  the  book  of  Daniel  there  is  one  problem  which 
deserves  special  consideration  because  it  bears  di- 
rectly upon  our  subsequent  discussion  of  the  Mes- 
siahship  of  Jesus.  The  crucial  passage  is  as  follows: 
"I  saw  in  the  night  visions,  and  behold,  there  came 
with  the  clouds  of  heaven  one  like  to  a  Man  (liter- 
ally, Son  of  Man),  and  He  came  to  the  Aged  One 
and  was  brought  before  Him,  and  there  was  given 
Him  dominion  and  glory  and  sovereignty,  that  all  the 
peoples,  nations,  and  languages,  should  serve  Him. 
His  dominion  is  an  everlasting  dominion  which  shall 
not  pass  away,  and  his  sovereignty  one  that  shall  not 
be  destroyed."  l 

1  Daniel  7:  13,  14. 


74      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

It  is  to  be  carefully  noted  that  this  "one  like 
unto  a  Man"  personifies  the  Jewish  people  to  whom 
the  world  empire  is  about  to  be  given.  This  figure 
stands  as  the  symbol  for  this  empire  just  as  the  lion, 
the  bear,  etc.,  symbolize  the  ancient  world  empires 
that  are  to  be  done  away.  Just  as  in  modern  times 
the  lion  is  taken  as  the  symbol  of  Great  Britain, 
the  bear  of  Russia,  and  the  eagle  of  the  United 
States.  This  figure  is  not  in  any  sense  that  of  a 
Messiah  any  more  than  the  statue  of  Liberty  is  the 
sovereign  of  the  United  States.  The  point  of  view 
of  the  author  of  Daniel  is  not  monarchical  but  theo- 
cratic. It  is  the  priesthood  at  the  head  of  the  whole 
people  which  is  to  exercise  world  dominion,  as  the 
following  verse  shows:  "And  the  sovereignty  and 
the  dominion  and  the  greatness  of  the  kingdom 
under  the  whole  heaven  shall  surely  be  given  to  the 
people  of  the  sons  of  the  Most  High.  His  sover- 
eignty (that  is,  God's,  or  what  to  the  author  was 
the  equivalent,  Israel's)  is  an  everlasting  sovereignty 
and  all  dominion  shall  serve  and  obey  him. " 

In  this  passage  we  have  an  expression  of  the  na- 
tional ''will  to  exploit."  It  is  not  so  much  the 
will  of  the  hierarchy  to  exploit  the  Jewish  people 
but  the  will  of  the  Jewish  people  to  exploit  the  rest 
of  the  world.  This  priestly  practice  has  been  ex- 
alted into  a  principle  and  has  become  the  watch- 
word of  the  national  program.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  some  of  the  later  Apocalyptic  writers 
firmly  believed  that  this  career  of  exploitation  was 
the  mission  which  Jehovah  intended  His  people  to 


The  Apocalypses  Unmasked  75 

fulfil.  The  author  of  4  Ezra  (or  2  Esdras)  expresses 
this  expectation  and  at  the  same  time  utters  a  note 
of  peevish  impatience  at  the  delay  in  the  final  con- 
summation.    He  writes: 

But  we  (the  Jewish  people)  thy  first  born,  thy  beloved 

[most  dear] 
If  the  world  has  indeed  been  created  for  our  sakes  why 

do  we  not  enter  into  posession  of  our  world?1 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  judge  of  the  theo- 
logical and  ethical  implications  of  the  Apocalyptic 
ethic  and  theology.  It  was  the  negative  of  the 
prophetic — the  logical  continuation  and  develop- 
ment of  the  priestly.  These  facts  must  be  clearly 
kept  in  mind  in  any  endeavor  to  find  a  solution  for 
the  " eschatological  problem"  of  the  Synoptic 
Gospels.  That  is  to  say,  the  question  as  to  how  far 
Jesus  incorporated  in  His  teachings  the  Apocalyptic 
interpretation  of  life  considered  in  the  past,  present 
and  future.  This  matter  will  now  engage  our  at- 
tention. 

*4  Ezra,  6:  58. 


j6      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE   THEOLOGY   OF   JESUS 

The  modern  endeavor  to  ascertain  the  real  mes- 
sage of  Jesus  has  proceeded  in  the  main  along  the 
lines  of  literary  criticism  of  the  Gospels,  together 
with  a  study  of  contemporary  Judaism,  and  with 
the  help  of  occasional  "psychologizing"  used  in  a 
rather  amateurish  way.  A  great  deal  of  this  work 
has  proved  of  permanent  value  as  an  introduction, 
but  much  confusion  remains  to  be  cleared  up.  The 
best  method  of  arriving  at  a  clear  solution  must 
come  through  the  study  of  the  theological  substruc- 
ture of  Jesus'  thought  which  hitherto  has  been 
surprisingly  neglected. 

As  the  criticism  of  the  Hexateuch  produced  a 
"documentary  hypothesis,"  so  has  the  study  of  the 
Synoptic  problem.  It  is  generally  accepted  that 
our  Gospel  of  Mark  is  a  primary  source  of  the 
events  in  the  life  of  Jesus  which  was  employed  as 
such  by  the  Evangelists  Matthew  and  Luke.  The 
two  latter  also  use  a  document  containing  the 
"Sayings"  or  fragments  of  discourses  embodying 
teachings  of  Jesus.  This  document  is  sometimes 
called  the  "Logia"  or,  more  briefly,  "Q"  (an  abbre- 
viation originally  employed  by  the  German  critic 
signifying  Quelle  or  source).  The  Apocalyptic 
discourse  of  Mark  13  and  its  parallels  in  the  other 
Synoptics  is  by  some  held  to  be  another  original 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  77 

source.  Some  again  hold  this  discourse  to  be  the 
embodiment  of  genuine  teachings  of  Jesus,  while 
others  consider  it  to  have  been  an  Apocalyptic 
oracle,  pseudepigraphical  (as  were  all  such  little 
Apocalypses  of  which  many  were  in  circulation)  to 
which  the  Name  of  Jesus  had  been  forged,  but 
which  was  employed  by  all  three  Synoptic  writers 
under  the  impression  that  it  was  a  genuine  oracle 
of  their  Master.  The  first  and  third  Evangelists 
are  credited  with  having  combined  historical  set- 
tings taken  from  Mark  with  such  an  arrangement 
or  combination  of  the  "Sayings,"  as  best  suited 
their  purpose.  Moreover,  each  of  these  writers  had 
his  own  particular  viewpoint,  or  "tendency,"  which 
influenced  him  in  the  adaptation  which  he  made  of 
his  material.  Prof.  Burton  of  Chicago  has  a  much 
more  elaborate  documentary  hypothesis.  He  holds 
that  there  were  at  least  four  principal  and  several 
minor  documents  employed  by  the  two  later 
Evangelists.1 

In  the  following  discussion  I  accept  the  hypoth- 
esis that  the  three  main  sources  were  Mark,  the 
Logia  (Q),  and  the  Apocalyptic  "oracle  of  Jesus" 
which  I  hold  to  be  pseudepigraphical. 

It  has  been  almost  universally  held  that  Jesus 
was  not  a  theologian.  He  did  not  employ  the  jargon 
of  the  schools  whether  rabbinical,  or  metaphysical 
(Hellenistic).     From  this  fact  it  has  been  falsely 

1  "Some  Principles  of  Literary  Criticism  and  Their  Applica- 
tion to  the  Synoptic  Problem,"  University  of  Chicago  Press, 
1904. 


78      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

inferred  that  His  religion  was  non-theological.  For 
example,  Hegel  failed  to  do  justice  to  Jesus' 
thought  because  he  could  not  regard  Him  as  a 
profound  philosopher.  (This  was  presumably  be- 
cause he  could  not  find  in  His  teachings  any  antici- 
pation of  the  Hegelian  logic.) 

But  since  Bergson  has  rehabilitated  the  method 
of  direct  insight  or  spiritual  intuition,  perhaps  a 
tardy  recognition  will  be  accorded,  in  philosophical 
circles,  to  the  profundity  of  Jesus'  metaphysical 
formulations.  A  like  recognition  is  awaiting  the 
philosophical  value  of  the  ethic  of  Jesus  and  its 
logical  coherence.  The  theological  teachings  of  our 
Lord  naturally  group  themselves  according  to  the 
scheme  of  the  prophetic  theology  in  the  following 
order:  (i)  His  teaching  as  to  the  value  of  the  indi- 
vidual; (ii)  His  interpretation  of  history,  or  the 
developmental  idea;  (iii)  His  universalism ;  (iv)  His 
teaching  about  God;  (v)  His  teaching  about  the 
community  or  the  Messianic  idea.  This  last  will  be 
considered  under  the  threefold  aspects  of  (a)  its 
prophetic  quality;  (b)  the  conception  of  the  King- 
dom; and  (c)  the  means  of  its  inauguration.  This, 
in  turn,  will  lead  to  a  critical  discussion  of  the 
eschatological  problem  to  which  a  separate  chapter 
will  be  devoted.  This,  in  turn,  will  be  followed  by 
a  chapter  on  Jesus  as  the  Prophet- Messiah,  with  a 
special  reference  to  the  Messianic  ethic. 

The  affinity  of  Jesus  with  the  prophetic  theology 
and  His  antagonism  to  the  theology  and  ethic  of 
the  priestly  cult  will  be  frequently  noted. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  79 

I 

The  teaching  of  Jesus  about  the  value  of  the 
individual  Ls  a  striking  extension  or  the  prophetic 
idea  and  a  contrast  to  that  of  His  contemporaries, 
the  scribes.  The  former  discovered  that  God  needs 
men,  that  He  depends  upon  them,  and  that  the 
reign  of  God  on  earth  has  the  highest  welfare  of 
mankind  as  a  leading  object.  The  individual  stands 
out  from  the  tribal  community.  The  scribes  held 
that  only  certain  men  (and  very  few)  had  a  value  in 
the  sight  of  God.  The  Gentiles  had  none.  The 
Samaritans  perhaps  had  less.  Not  even  all  Jews 
had  value — only  the  few  who  belonged  to  the 
priestly  caste,  or  who,  like  the  Pharisees,  strictly 
observed  the  law.  The  Galileans,  as  well  as  the 
publicans,  the  harlots  and  the  uncircumcised  were 
considered  ceremonially,  if  not  also  morally,  impure 
and  loathsome  in  the  sight  of  God. 

The  only  type  of  men  against  whom  Jesus  turned 
the  shafts  of  His  indignant  scorn  were  those  who 
were  scornful  of  others,  namely,  the  scribes,  the 
Pharisees,  and  the  priests  of  the  temple.  Against 
these  He  contended  for  the  supreme  value  of  the 
individual  man  as  man,  and  this  thought  was  to 
find  its  embodiment  in  the  ideal  community. 

The  value  of  the  individual  begins  in  earliest 
childhood.  "Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
The  old  must  return  to  the  simple,  childlike  atti- 
tude before  they  can  enter  the  kingdom.1 

1  Mk.  10:  14,  15,  Mt.  18:  3;  19:  13,  Lk.  18: 16. 


8o      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

To  receive  a  child  is  to  receive  the  Great  Teacher 
Himself.1  As  for  the  individual  who  may  injure  a 
child  it  would  have  been  better  for  him  never  to 
have  been  born.2  To  give  a  drink  of  water  to  a 
thirsty  child  is  to  merit  an  everlasting  reward.3  The 
children  possess  an  original  righteousness.  Those 
who  repent,  in  so  doing,  return  to  the  childlike 
relationship  with  God. 

Even  those  whom  the  spiritual  aristocrats  despise 
have  an  infinite  value.  The  Samaritan  may  be  a 
neighbor  more  truly  than  priest  or  Levite,  if  he 
loves  his  neighbor  as  himself.  God  feels  that  love 
directed  toward  one's  neighbor  is  equivalent  to  love 
directed  toward  God  Himself.  The  despised  beggar 
filled  with  sores,  regarded  as  a  cause  of  ceremonial 
defilement,  goes  at  his  death  to  enjoy  loving  inti- 
macy with  Abraham,  while  the  rich  man  who 
despised  and  treated  him  as  an  inferior  is,  perhaps 
on  that  very  account,  an  outcast  from  the  society 
of  the  blessed. 

Jesus  recognizes  in  the  Gentile  centurion  such 
faith  as  He  had  not  found  in  Israel.  The  widow  of 
Zarephath  and  Naaman  the  Syrian  received  a 
greater  mark  of  God's  favor  than  the  widows  and 
lepers  of  Israel.  The  publicans  and  harlots  go  into 
the  Kingdom  of  God  before  the  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees. There  is  rejoicing  in  Heaven  over  one  sinner 
that  repenteth.    God  protects  the  sparrows,  clothes 

1Mk.  9:37,  41;  Lk.  9:48. 
2Mt.  18:6,  10;  Mk.  9:42. 
3Mt.  10:42. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  81 

the  lilies,  feeds  the  birds.  But  they  are  nothing  in 
comparison  with  His  loving  care  for  men.  So  great 
is  God's  interest  in  His  children  that  He  numbers 
even  the  hairs  of  their  heads.  To  succor  the  needy, 
the  sick,  the  imprisoned,  is  to  minister  to  the  Judge 
of  all  the  earth  Himself. 

The  world's  standard  of  value  is  reversed.  Many 
that  are  last  shall  be  first,  and  the  first  last,  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

The  contemporaries  of  Jesus  regarded  Israel  alone 
as  "God's  elect,"  "His  Son,"  "His  Beloved,"  "His 
Only-Begotten."  They  did  not  apply  any  of  these 
titles  to  persons  but  only  to  the  personified  "Chosen 
People."  Jesus,  on  the  other  hand,  regarded  indi- 
viduals as  the  children  of  God. 

The  problem  of  the  significance  of  Jesus'  use  of 
the  phrase  "Son  of  Man"  finds  its  key  in  the  dis- 
covery of  the  lofty  regard  with  which  He  considered 
the  individual  man  as  man.  In  the  theology  of 
Jesus  such  high  claims  are  made  for  man  as  the 
child  and  spokesman  of  God  that  many  of  the  say- 
ings which  He  applies  to  man  in  general  are  by  his 
later  adherents  held  to  apply  only  to  Himself  as 
Messiah.  This  contrasts  with  the  point  of  view 
both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  mouths  of 
Jesus'  contemporaries.  The  Greek  /uos  rod  av  dpuwov 
is  the  translation  of  the  Aramaic  "Bar-nasha" 
which  is  the  exact  equivalent  of  the  Hebrew  "Ben- 
Adam."  In  the  Old  Testament  the  phrase  is  applied 
to  mankind  in  general,  as  opposed  to  God,  or  to 
the  Gentiles  as  opposed  to  the  elect  people,  the 


82      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Jews.  For  example,  we  read  in  Numbers  23:  19 
"God  is  not  a  man  that  He  should  lie,  neither  the 
Son  of  Man  that  He  should  repent,"  and  in  Deuter- 
onomy 32:  18  (R.  V.)  the  children  of  men  are  con- 
trasted with  the  children  of  Israel.1 

In  the  Psalms  the  phrase  is  commonly  used  to 
emphasize  the  contrast  of  mortal,  impotent,  tran- 
sient man,  as  against  an  Omnipotent,  Eternal  God.2 
In  two  passages  the  phrase  " Children  of  Men"  is 
used  as  a  synonym  for  mankind.  In  fact,  its  most 
usual  sense  is  that  of  "mankind,"  "the  human 
race,"  and  is  a  title  of  humility  or  inferiority.  In 
the  mouth  of  Jesus  the  word  is  always  a  title  of 
dignity. 

But  there  is  another  sense,  perhaps  colloquial,  in 
which  the  phrase  occurs  as  a  substitute  for  the  per- 
sonal pronoun,  both  for  the  first  and  second  persons 
singular.  In  the  latter  sense  the  phrase  "Son  of 
Man"  occurs  eighty-nine  times  in  the  writings  of 
Ezekiel  always  as  the  form  of  address  applied  to  the 
prophet  by  Jehovah.  "The  term  'Ben-Adam,' 
says  Prof.  Hirsch,  "is  merely  a  cumbersome  and 
formal  substitute  for  the  personal  pronoun;  such 
substitution  being  due,  perhaps,  to  the  influence  of 
Assyro-Babylonian  usage."  The  usage  in  Aramaic 
is  similar  and  is  also  found  in  Syriac,  Mardiac, 
Talmudic,  and  other  dialects. 

J  See  Article  "Son  of  Man"  by  E.  H.  Hirsch,  University  of 
Chicago,  Professor  of  Rabbinical  Literature, — Jewish  Encyclo- 
pedia, vol.  11,  p.  461. 

*Ps.  8:4  (A.  V.  5)-i i:4-33:  13. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  83 

The  use  of  the  phrase  as  applied  to  man  and  also 
as  a  substitute  for  the  first  personal  pronoun  con- 
stantly recurs  in  the  sayings  of  Jesus.  It  is  possible 
that  He  used  it  in  a  third  sense  also  as  symbolic 
of  God's  Kingdom.    (Mt.  10:  23.) 

The  Jew  in  the  time  of  Christ  did  not  share  Jesus' 
exalted  view  of  humanity.  He  took  the  Old  Testa- 
ment point  of  view  expressed  in  the  book  of  Job — 
"The  son  of  man  which  is  a  worm,"  l  and  heeded 
the  warning  of  the  Psalmist,  "  Put  not  your  trust  in 
the  son  of  man."  2  So  novel  and  startling  was 
Jesus'  exalted  view  of  the  divine  significance  of 
simple  man  that  His  utterances  about  him  fell  upon 
the  ears  of  the  Pharisees  as  blasphemy.  Yet  many 
of  these  utterances  are  little  more  than  a  develop- 
ment of  the  thought  found  in  the  prophets.  Com- 
pare the  declaration  of  Jesus  "  Man  is  greater  than 
the  temple,"3  with  the  prophetic  utterance  "I 
desire  mercy  and  not  sacrifice"4  paraphrased  by 
Jesus  in  the  words  "  Mercy  is  greater  than  sacri- 
fice." 5  The  sentiment  in  each  case  is  the  same, 
that  it  is  greater  in  God's  sight  to  minister  to  man- 
kind than  to  concern  oneself  with  the  acts  of  the 
temple  cultus.  The  same  idea  is  developed  still 
further  in  the  statement  "Man  is  lord  even  of  the 
Sabbath."  6    This  claim  was  on  a  par  with  the  state- 

1  Job  25:6.      2  Ps.  143. 

3  Mt.  12:6  (R.  V.)  margin. 

4  Hosea  6 :  6. 
6  Mt.  12:  17. 

6Mt.  i2:8;Mk.  2:28. 


84      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

ment  that  under  certain  circumstances  a  man  could 
forgive  the  sins  of  another.1  Of  course,  all  men 
have  not  only  the  right  but  also  the  duty  to  forgive 
others  who  have  sinned  against  them.  It  is  only  by 
so  doing  that  they  can  consistently  ask  for  God's 
forgiveness,  but  beyond  that  any  man  who  has 
consciously  entered  into  the  Kingdom,  that  is,  come 
into  co-operating  relationship  with  the  Father,  may 
speak  words  of  absolution  to  a  penitent,  who,  like 
the  paralytic,  is  bound  and  held  in  the  chain  of  his 
sins.  But  these  various  statements  made  by  our 
Lord  to  apply  to  the  spiritually  enlightened  man  in 
general  were  by  His  later  interpreters  restricted  in 
their  application  to  Jesus  Himself  as  the  Messiah. 
This  tendency  begins  in  the  Gospels,2  and  reaches 
its  climax  in  the  opinion  that  the  use  of  the  phrase 
"Son  of  Man"  by  Jesus  applied  only  to  Himself  in 
the  Messianic  sense. 

Among  modern  interpreters  of  the  thought  of 
Jesus  as  to  the  value  of  the  least  and  lowliest  of  the 
sons  of  men  none  has  more  clearly  grasped  or  co- 
gently stated  the  true  doctrine  of  the  worth  of  the 
individual  than  Prof.  Howison  in  his  essay  on  "The 
Right  Relation  of  Reason  to  Religion."  3 

Howison  appreciates  this  teaching  both  on  its 
negative  and  constructive  side,  as  destroying  the 
method  of  authority  (that  of  the  scribal  and  Phari- 

JMk.  2:5  f. 

2Cf.  Mt.  12:8,  Lk.  6:5. 

3  "Limits  of  Evolution  and  Other  Essays,"  p.  217  f,  especially 
pp.  241-260. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  85 

saic  ecclesiasticism,  which  "shut  up  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  against  men")  and,  presenting  the  revo- 
lutionary proclamation  of  the  relation  between  God 
and  man  as  an  eternal  solidarity  of  God  and  man 
in  the  community  life  of  the  kingdom. 

The  earlier  interpreters  of  Jesus  grasped  the  fact 
that  He  claimed  for  Himself  personally  such  a 
solidarity  with  God,  but  they  restricted  the  appli- 
cation of  the  same  claim  which  Jesus  made  for  all 
mankind  to  Himself  as  the  unique  Son  of  God. 
Jesus'  doctrine  was  that  of  the  potential,  nay,  the 
essential  solidarity  of  God  and  the  human  race. 
His  interpreters  limited  the  doctrine  so  that  it 
should  teach  the  exclusive  solidarity  of  Jesus  with 
God.    Jesus'  doctrine  is  thus  set  forth  by  Howison: 

This  novel,  unprecedented  and  astounding  doctrine  of 
a  universal,  moral  equality  as  the  aim  of  all  spiritual 
being,  an  equality  which  is  to  embrace  all  minds  in  a 
complete  union  with  the  Mind  of  God,  and  from  which 
all  external  authority  is  to  be  excluded,  Jesus,  by  the 
plainest  implication  sets  forth  as  the  object  and  goal  of 
all  spiritual  effort.1 

In  this  conception  of  the  religious  relations  of  souls  to 
God  and  to  each  other,  Christ  has  parted  company  with 
all  the  piety  that  had  gone  before  Him,  and  to  such  a 
degree  as  had  never  in  the  older  world  been  paralleled.2 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  250. 

2  Howison  fails  to  do  justice  to  the  prophetic  doctrine  of  the 
value  of  the  individual.  As  we  have  seen  Jesus'  doctrine  was 
but  an  enlargement  of  the  prophetic.  Howison  is  right  in  calling 
that  doctrine  revolutionary,  but  it  was  not  new  except  in  rela- 
tion to  the  priestly  view  of  His  contemporaries. 


86      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

His  theistic  step  was  not  simply  new,  it  was  absolutely 
revolutionary.  His  point  of  view  of  the  literal  divine 
sonship  of  every  lowliest  and  most  sinful  and  sinning 
spirit,  committed  Him  logically  to  the  assertion  of  the 
implicit  equality  of  all  spirits  with  each  other,  so  far  as 
concerns  their  moral  powers  and  destinations,  no  matter 
what  their  actual  and  contingent  state ;  and  also  of  their 
potential  equality  with  God.1 

Howison  realizes  that  the  monarchical  view  of  God 
as  a  "sovereign"  is  replaced  by  the  doctrine  of  the 
Divine  Fatherhood. 

To  break  away  from  this  magisterial  and  monarchical 
conception  of  God  which  left  men  nothing  but  the  sub- 
missive subjects  of  a  Lord,  Whose  sovereign  Will  ordained 
all  things,  even  the  supreme  distinction  between  what  is 
right  and  what  is  wrong,  was  indeed  a  great  and  unprec- 
edented step.  But  Jesus  took  it.  Instead  of  Majesty 
and  a  Lord,  He  presents  God  as  the  Friend  and  moral 
Father  of  men,  Who  calls  every  human  being,  every 
spirit,  to  the  equality  of  sharing  in  that  fulness  of  spiritual 
powers  which  constitutes  the  Divine  glory.     .     .     . 

The  aim  of  such  a  religion  is  not  merely  to  "glorify 
God";  rather  it  is  to  glorify  all  souls,  as  all  in  the  image 
of  God;  to  glorify  them  by  fulfilling  for  every  one  of  them 
its  vocation  to  repeat  in  a  new  way  the  life  of  universal 
love  that  is  the  life  of  God,  and  thus  to  attain  through 
the  universal  greatening,  such  a  real  glorification  of  God 
as  other  forms  of  religion  seek  after  in  vain.  The  God 
of  Christ  is  indeed  (Himself)  One  Who  comes  "not  to  be 
ministered  unto  but  to  minister,"  and  Who  illuminates 
in  His  Own  Person  the  great  and  characteristic  truth 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  251. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  87 

spoken  by  Jesus,  "He  that  findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it, 
and  he  that  loseth  his  life  shall  find  it."  l 

According  to  the  teachings  of  the  prophets  and 
of  Jesus  the  Cause  of  God  Himself  is  thwarted  so 
long  as  the  least  and  lowliest  are  kept  from  the 
opportunities  of  growth  and  expansion.  The  indi- 
vidual does  not  come  unto  his  own  till  he  discovers 
God's  need  of  him  as  co-founder  of  the  Messianic 
Kingdom. 

This  leads  us  to  the  consideration  of  the  vital 
question  as  to  how  Jesus  regarded  the  quest  for 
personal  salvation.  This  was  the  object  which  was 
diligently  sought  by  the  Pharisee  through  the 
method  of  legalism  and  ceremonialism.  Not  only 
does  Jesus  declare  this  method  unavailing  but  pro- 
claims that  the  quest  for  personal  salvation  in 
itself  is  unavailing  and  self-defeating.  This  quest 
is  based  on  the  assumption  that  God  is  unwilling 
and  reluctant  to  impart  the  gift  of  salvation  to 
individual  men  and  that  they  must  therefore  find 
some  means  of  persuading  Him  to  grant  it.  Ac- 
cording to  Jesus'  teaching  God  does  not  require 
any  such  persuasion.  He  is  already  seeking  the 
lost.  The  lost  should  not  be  seeking  themselves 
and  their  own  salvation  but  should  be  seeking  God 
and  His  righteousness,  that  is,  the  triumph  of  His 
righteous  Cause,  His  reign  in  the  universal  com- 
munity. Thus  by  forgetting  the  desire  for  personal 
salvation  and  seeking  the  universal  salvation  the 

^p.  cit  p.  252,  f. 


88      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

individual  finds  himself  in  the  blessed  company  of 
the  saved.  He  who  treats  men  as  though  they  were 
mere  instruments  to  minister  to  his  own  superior 
comfort  and  well-being  is  seeking  his  own  welfare 
at  the  expense  of  other  men  or  the  community.  He 
is  sinning  against  the  value  of  the  individual  and 
so  of  mankind.  Because  of  the  value  of  the  indi- 
vidual in  God's  sight  this  exploiting  of  men  is  the 
supreme  sin  which  cuts  them  off  automatically  from 
the  Kingdom  of  God.  Hence  the  difficulty  of  the 
rich, — for  wealth  is  regarded  as  the  outcome  of  ex- 
ploitation,— in  entering  into  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
They  can  only  do  it  by  renouncing  the  fruits  of 
their  exploitation.  They  must  lose  the  safety  which 
their  wealth  guarantees  them  in  order  to  find  their 
salvation  in  the  community  where  all  are  saved. 

II 
The  close  affinity  already  recognized  between  the 
thought  of  Jesus  and  that  of  the  prophets  creates  a 
presumption  in  favor  of  the  view  that  He  shared 
the  prophetic  valuation  of  history.  In  such  of 
His  sayings  as  have  been  preserved  to  us  there  are 
few  direct  allusions  to  this  conception.  The  pas- 
sage, perhaps,  which  comes  nearest  to  revealing  the 
prophetic  conception  of  history  is  that  wherein  He 
refers  to  John  the  Baptist  and  the  prophets  of  the 
past  as  having  been  already  members  of  the  King- 
dom of  God.1 

1  See  below,  p.   128. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  89 

The  essence  of  the  prophetic  philosophy  of  his- 
tory lay  in  the  developmental  idea  and  this  thought 
is  clearly  set  forth  in  undoubted  Q  passages  in  the 
parables  of  the  seed  growing  secretly,  the  mustard 
seed,  and  the  leaven. 

In  spite  of  this  the  modern  eschatologists  teach 
that  Jesus  held  the  Apocalyptic  catastrophic  view 
of  world  history  and  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  Be  it  noted,  however,  that  the  least 
convincing  portions  of  the  work  of  Johannes  Weiss 
and  Schweitzer  are  those  in  which  they  seek  to 
eliminate  the  developmental  idea  from  these  para- 
bles. 

Moreover,  the  doctrine  of  the  immanence  of  God 
clearly  implies  His  Presence  in  the  world.  The 
teaching  that  God  feeds  the  birds,  and  numbers  the 
hairs  of  the  heads  of  His  children,  the  teaching  that 
the  children  are  already  members  of  the  Kingdom, 
are  based  upon  the  idea  of  God  as  present  in  the 
world. 

If  His  Presence  be  shown  in  these  small  mat- 
ters, how  much  more  must  His  guidance  be  man- 
ifested in  the  weightier  matters  of  great  historic 
movements.  This  view  will  be  further  confirmed 
and  established  if  it  be  shown  that  the  ethics  of 
Jesus  contemplated  the  bringing  in  of  the  future 
historic  changes  implied  in  the  coming  of  the  King- 
dom by  moral  processes  and  not  by  a  gigantic 
miracle.  This  matter  will  receive  more  extensive 
treatment  in  the  next  chapter. 


90      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

III 

The  prophetic  universalism  was  an  organic  part 
of  the  prophetic  interpretation  of  history.  It  linked 
up  the  development  of  the  non-Jewish  races  with 
God's  plan  for  the  salvation  of  the  Jews  and  that 
of  the  Jews  with  the  ultimate  salvation  of  mankind. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  show  that  as  opposed  to  the 
particularism  of  the  priestly-apocalyptic  theology 
Jesus  made  the  prophetic  universalism  His  Own. 
This  still  further  strengthens  the  argument  in  favor 
of  Jesus  holding  to  the  prophetic  interpretation  of 
history.  Certain  critics  are  found  to  deny  that 
universalism  was  inherent  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
The  eschatologists  must  naturally  deny  it  as  incon- 
sistent with  the  Apocalyptic  particularistic  world 
view.  The  Apocalypses  were,  in  Harnack's  phrase, 
"more  intent  on  the  downfall  than  on  the  conver- 
sion of  the  heathen."  Among  the  passages  which 
these  critics  urge  in  support  of  their  view  are  the 
words  of  Jesus  to  the  Syro- Phoenician  woman  espe- 
cially as  reported  in  Matthew's  version  which  con- 
tains the  words  ' '  I  am  not  sent  save  unto  the  lost 
sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel."  Another  passage  is 
that  in  the  commission  to  the  Twelve  telling  them 
not  to  go  into  any  city  of  the  Samaritans  or  Gen- 
tiles (again,  according  to  Matthew's  version).  But 
the  chief  ground  of  their  contention  is  the  inference 
from  the  exclusive  character  of  the  Church  in  Jeru- 
salem where  the  immediate  followers  of  the  Lord 
were  in  control,  that  this  exclusiveness  must  have 
been  based  upon  some  teaching  of  His. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  91 

We  find,  however,  that  the  passages  which  seem 
to  restrict  the  Lord's  mission  to  the  Jews  occur  in 
St.  Matthew's  Gospel  alone.  And  it  is  recognized 
that  this  is  a  distinctively  Jewish  Gospel  whose 
author  has  the  tendency  to  "rabbinize"  the  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  wherever  the  opportunity  offers.  This 
tendency  seems  to  be  lacking  in  the  Q  version.  In 
this  document  we  have  the  account  of  the  healing 
of  the  centurion's  servant.  On  entering  into  Caper- 
naum a  centurion  in  the  Roman  army  asks  the 
Teacher  to  heal  his  servant  who  is  sick  of  the  palsy. 
Jesus  says  forthwith  "I  will  come  and  heal  him." 
This  eagerness  to  help  is  in  striking  contrast  to 
the  hesitation  He  is  reported  to  have  shown  in 
regard  to  the  Syro- Phoenician  woman,  which  is 
placed  on  the  ground  that  the  children  must  be  fed 
before  the  dogs  and  that  He  is  sent  only  to  the  Jews. 
Moreover,  the  centurion's  faith  is  selected  for  com- 
mendation as  greater  than  any  faith  which  the 
Master  has  found  in  Israel.  This  He  would  have 
been  reluctant  to  admit  if  He  had  held  to  the  nar- 
row particularism  ascribed  to  Him  by  the  eschatol- 
ogists. 

The  difference  of  treatment  accorded  the  Syro- 
Phoenician  woman  must  not  therefore  be  referred 
to  a  question  of  principle  but  to  the  general  circum- 
stances. It  is  important  to  note  that  Mark  states 
that  Jesus  wished  no  man  to  know  of  His  Presence 
in  the  town.  Doubtless  His  tired  nerves  demanded 
rest.  Perhaps  it  was  in  quest  of  such  a  period  of 
rest  that  He  went  into  the  borders  of  Tyre  and 


92      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Sidon.  Matthew  tells  us  that  the  woman  made  a 
scene,  so  much  so  that  she  rasped  the  nerves  of 
even  the  disciples.  Does  not  this  combination  of 
circumstances, — Jesus'  weariness  and  desire  to  be 
unmolested  and  the  hysterical  importunity  of  the 
woman — explain  Jesus'  reluctance  to  make  Him- 
self known  through  a  miracle  of  healing,  rather  than 
the  statement  attributed  to  Him  by  Matthew, 
which  Mark's  earlier  Gospel  omits,  "I  was  not 
sent  but  unto  the  lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel"? 
If  Jesus  had  refused  to  help  the  woman  as  a  matter 
of  principle  He  would  not  have  been  moved  merely 
by  her  importunity.  But  He  not  only  acceded  to 
her  request — but,  according  to  Mark,  He  com- 
mended her  humility.  We  may  note  in  this  con- 
nection that  in  the  report  of  the  commission  to  the 
Twelve  the  injunction  not  to  go  into  any  city  of 
the  Samaritans  or  of  the  Gentiles  does  not  occur  in 
St.  Mark  or  in  Q. 

Such  testimony  as  is  advanced  against  the  uni- 
versalism  of  Jesus  is  overwhelmed  by  the  positive 
testimony  in  its  favor.  It  is  in  harmony  with  the 
affinity  between  His  teaching  and  that  of  the  proph- 
ets. It  is  in  harmony  with  the  teaching  of  John 
the  Baptist  which  Jesus  commended.  John  rebuked 
the  particularism  of  the  Jews  and  their  pride  in 
descent  from  Abraham  by  declaring  that  God  could 
make  new  children  of  Abraham  out  of  the  stones. 
"And  think  not  to  say  within  yourselves:  'we  have 
Abraham  for  our  father';  for  I  say  unto  you  that 
God  is  able  of  these  stones  to  raise  up  children  unto 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  93 

Abraham."  This  is  a  Q  passage,  as  is  also  the  state- 
ment of  Jesus  embodying  the  same  universalism : 
"I  say  unto  you:  they  shall  come  from  the  east 
and  the  west,  and  shall  sit  at  meat  with  Abraham 
and  Isaac  and  Jacob  in  the  kingdom  of  God:  but 
the  sons  of  the  kingdom  (that  is,  the  Jews)  shall  be 
cast  out." 

In  later  sources  we  have  the  parables  of  the  Last 
Judgment,  wherein  no  distinction  is  made  between 
Jew  and  Gentile,  in  the  dividing  of  the  sheep  and  the 
goats.  This  is  all  the  stronger  testimony  to  the 
universalism  of  Jesus  because  it  is  embodied  in 
Matthew's  Gospel  whose  final  editor  was  a  "par- 
ticularist." 

Whereas  the  first  Evangelist  was,  as  we  have 
said,  a  particularist,  the  third  was  a  Hellenist.  The 
Hellenistic  Jews  had  been  liberalized  by  their  con- 
tact with  the  Greek  world  and  that  predisposed 
them  in  favor  of  universalism.  It  was  therefore 
natural  that  Luke  should  give  prominence  to 
any  traces  of  universalism  in  his  sources  about  the 
teaching  of  Jesus,  and  as  natural  that  the  first 
Evangelist  should  omit  them.  In  Luke's  version 
of  the  visit  to  Nazareth  His  hearers  are  at  first 
shown  as  admiring  the  gracious  words  which  He 
spoke.  They  ask  " Is  not  this  Joseph's  son?"  But 
their  antagonism  does  not  develop  till  He  has  given 
utterance  to  the  universalistic  thought  in  pointing 
out  God's  favor  to  the  Gentiles,  the  widow  of  Zare- 
phath,  and  Naaman  the  Syrian.  It  is  immediately 
following  these  words  that  they  take  offense  and 


94      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

threaten  Him  with  violence.  |In  Matthew's  ver- 
sion we  are  told  simply  that  His  hearers  were 
astonished  at  His  doctrine  and  wisdom,  but  they 
took  offense  because  He  was  the  carpenter's  son  and 
the  other  members  of  His  family  were  familiar 
acquaintances.  According  to  this  version  they 
seemed  to  resent  the  prophetic  claim  of  one  of  such 
humble  origin.  The  universalistic  element  is  there- 
by suppressed.  The  universalistic  parable  of  the 
good  Samaritan  is  given  at  length  by  Luke  with  its 
implication  of  the  superiority  of  the  Samaritan  to 
the  priest  and  Levite  and  quite  naturally  is  omitted 
entirely  by  the  first  Evangelist.  In  spite  of  the 
particularism  of  the  Jerusalem  Church  the  univer- 
salism  of  Jesus  may  be  clearly  established  from 
our  records,  and  those  critics  err  who  hold  that  the 
universalism  which  ultimately  triumphed  in  early 
Christianity  was  the  result  not  of  the  teaching  of 
the  Founder  but  of  the  Apostle  Paul. 

IV 

Nothing  is  clearer  than  the  fact  that  Jesus 
J  rejected  the  priestly  Apocalyptic  theological  idea 
of  a  God  Who  is  remote  from  the  world,  or  Who 
required  to  be  kept  in  a  favorable  mood  by  sacri- 
fices, or  Who  cared  more  about  ceremonial  right- 
eousness than  about  mercy,  justice  and  truth. 
Jesus'  constant  allusion  to  God  as  the  loving  Father 
desiring  the  welfare  of  "the  least,  the  lowliest  and 
the  lost"  is  universally  recognized  and  it  should 
further  be  recognized  that  herein  He  simply  extends 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  95 

the  prophetic  idea  of  God  as  the  Lover  of  the 
common  people,  and  contradicts  the  priestly  idea 
of  a  God  haughty,  remote,  capricious,  and  danger- 
ous. In  His  teaching  about  prayer  Jesus  portrays 
the  loving  communion  of  a  person  with  a  person 
which  had  its  prototype  in  the  ancient  prayer-life 
of  the  patriarchs  in  the  desert.  The  profundity  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus  should  not  be  underestimated 
because  its  marvelous  crystal  clearness  enables  one 
to  see  to  its  very  depths. 

V 

Jesus'  teaching  as  to  the  future  of  the  world 
community  has  the  closest  connection  with  the 
prophetic  doctrine  on  that  subject.  We  will  post- 
pone a  consideration  of  how  He  regarded  His  Own 
particular  relation  to  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom 
till  Chapter  VIII.  For  the  present  we  will  antici- 
pate the  results  there  set  forth  with  the  statement 
that  Jesus  identified  Himself  with  the  prophetic 
Inaugurator  of  the  Kingdom,  the  suffering  Messiah 
of  the  Great  Unknown. 

We  will  now  consider  the  social  aspects  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God  taken  as  the  community  of 
mankind  organized  for  the  benefit  of  all  according 
to  the  Divine  program. 

.There  is  one  point  on  which  the  modern  escha- 
tologists  and  their  opponents  may  cheerfully  agree : 
Jesus  expected  the  existing  social  order  to  pass 
away  and  be  superseded  by  another.  The  differ- 
ence between  the  two  modern  schools  of  thought 


96      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

lies  in  their  interpretation  of  the  manner  in  which 
He  considered  that  this  revolutionary  change  was 
to  be  brought  about.  As  we  know,  the  eschatolo- 
gists  hold  that  He  expected  it  to  come  about  by 
the  external  descent  of  the  miraculously  organized 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  from  above;  that  He  held  that 
it  was  to  be  imposed  from  without  by  armies  of 
angels  who  would  first  demolish  the  existing  world 
order.  This  event  would  occur  so  soon  as  the 
transcendent  God  should  select  the  time  to  give 
the  matter  His  attention.  The  primary  object  of 
the  Apocalyptic  ethic  was  to  secure  to  the  devout 
Jew  a  place  on  the  winning  side  of  the  hosts  of 
Heaven  and  at  the  same  time  to  force  the  hand  of 
God  Who  had  made  a  covenant  with  His  people, 
wherein  He  agreed  to  send  them  the  Kingdom  when 
they  should  succeed  in  sufficiently  fulfilling  the 
difficult  task  of  discharging  their  side  of  the  con- 
tract, as  stipulated  in  the  elaborate  requirements 
of  the  Torah.  This  ethic  was  based  upon  the  quest 
for  a  separate  personal  salvation  and  the  means 
employed  were  those  of  a  Pharisaic  scrupulosity  of 
ceremonial  observance  especially  in  regard  to  the 
Sabbath.  The  Torah  thus  became  a  very  compli- 
cated magic  formula  consisting  not  only  of  words 
but  of  ritualistic  acts  which  had  to  be  observed 
every  waking  hour.  This  kind  of  ethic  had  no 
organic  or  logical  connection  with  the  end  to  be 
obtained,  and  hence  may  be  rightly  called  an  in- 
terim-ethic,— one  that  is  to  be  done  away  when  it 
has  fulfilled  its  object — and  the  modern  eschatolo- 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  97 

gists  hold  that  the  ethic  of  Jesus  was  of  this  variety. 
The  adherents  of  the  non-eschatological  view  hold 
that  the  ethic  of  Jesus  was  not  intended  to  force  or 
to  persuade  God  to  act  but  was  intended  to  lead  to 
a  type  of  conduct  which  would  spontaneously 
inaugurate  the  rule  of  God  in  the  affairs  of  men 
through  a  moral,  logical  and  developmental  proc- 
ess, through  adherence  of  mankind  to  the  Divine 
law  revealed  by  the  prophets. 

In  support  of  their  view  the  eschatologists  point 
out  the  fact  that  the  ethical  teachings  of  Jesus  are 
not  practicable  in  the  present  world  order.  Prof. 
K.  Lake,  while  recognizing  the  difficulty  of  apply- 
ing the  ethic  of  Jesus  to  modern  conditions  of 
life,  nevertheless  holds,  in  contrast  to  Weiss  and 
Schweitzer,  that  the  ethic  of  early  Christianity  was 
absolute  and  not  conditional.  In  contrast  to  the 
statement  of  Schweitzer  "The  ethic  of  Jesus  .  .  . 
is  conditional  in  the  sense  that  it  stands  in  indissol- 
uble connection  with  the  expectation  of  perfection 
which  is  to  be  supernaturally  brought  about,"  1 
and  the  further  statement — "If  ethics  has  to  do 
only  with  the  expectation  of  the  supernatural  con- 
summation, its  actual  worth  is  diminished,  since  it 
is  merely  individual  ethics  and  is  concerned  only 
with  the  relation  of  each  single  person  to  the  King- 
dom of  God;"  2  Lake  writes:  "The  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  which  may  be  taken  as  a  typical  example 
of  Christian  ethics,   is  not  a  code  which  can  be 

1  "The  Mystery  of  the  Kingdom  of  God,"  p.  100. 

2  Op.  cit.  p.  103. 


98      Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

applied  directly  and  simply  to  our  ordinary  daily 
life.  It  is  impossible  not  to  resist  evil,  it  is  unde- 
sirable to  lend,  distrusting  no  man,  and  it  is  ruinous 
to  give  to  every  one  who  asks.  We  cannot  base  a 
code  of  conduct  on  the  literal  observance  of  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  if  society  is  to  continue  and 
human  nature  remain  as  it  is.  That  is  exactly  the 
point;  early  Christianity  assumed  that  society  was 
not  going  to  continue,  and  that  human  nature  was 
to  be  changed.  With  that  assumption  Christians 
were  in  a  position  to  see  and  to  appreciate  the 
absolute  principles  of  life  at  its  highest.  The 
effect  of  their  eschatological  belief  was  that  they 
were  enabled  to  see  ethical  problems  in  isolation — 
in  an  unnatural  isolation  if  you  like — and  to  reach 
nearer  to  reality  than  they  could  ever  otherwise 
have  done."  l 

The  fallacy  in  Prof.  Lake's  argument  lies  hidden 
in  the  following  statement:  "Early  Christianity 
assumed  that  society  was  not  going  to  continue, 
and  that  human  nature  was  to  be  changed."  The 
teaching  of  Jesus  was  distinguished  from  that  of 
His  early  followers  in  the  belief  not  "that  society 
was  not  going  to  continue,"  but  that  society  was 
not  to  continue  as  it  is  now  organized.  Human 
nature  was  to  be  indeed  changed  but  by  a  moral 
process  starting  with  repentance  and  not  by  a 
miracle.  Human  nature  was  not  to  be  super- 
naturally  transformed  into  some  other  kind  of 
nature,  but  human  nature  was  to  become  what  it 
lKirsopp  Lake,  "Early  Epistles  of  St.  Paul,"  p.  443. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  99 

was  divinely  intended  to  be — was  to  become  true  to 
its  deeper  self  by  recognizing  its  kinship  with  the 
divine.  Human  nature  when  it  had  found  itself 
through  repentance  was  to  reorganize  the  social 
order  on  a  different  basis.  In  place  of  the  natural 
pagan  principle  of  selfishness  and  exploitation, 
society  was  to  be  reorganized  on  the  principle  of 
universal,  loving  service.  In  place  of  might,  right 
was  to  be  enthroned. 

Jesus  did  not  expect  that  His  ethic  would  render 
its  adherents  ''successful  men"  in  the  existing 
order.  He  did  not  expect  them  to  grow  rich  by 
lending  to  every  one  that  asked. 

He  expected  them,  if  He  did  not  require  them, 
to  be  poor.  But  even  so  the  poor  are  blessed,  for 
the  whole  realm  of  God  is  theirs.1  He  did  not  expect 
that  the  policy  of  non-resistance  would  protect  His 
adherents  absolutely  from  aggression,  but  He  be- 
lieved that  (perhaps,  on  the  principle  that  it  "  takes 
two  to  make  a  quarrel"),  in  the  face  of  persistent 
non-resistance,  or,  better,  passive  resistance,  the 
aggressor  would  grow  ashamed  and  desist.  But 
however  much  the  adherents  of  the  Kingdom  should 
suffer  persecution,  loss  of  property,  or  even  of  life 
they  were  to  remember  what  happened  to  the 
prophets,  the  true  exponents  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
and  were  accordingly  to  rejoice  to  be  found  worthy, 
in  fulfilling  the  prophet's  task,  to  share  also  in  the 
prophet's  fate.  At  length  the  era  will  come  when 
the  mourners  shall  laugh ;  the  meek  will  yet  inherit 
*Lk.  6:20. 


loo    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

the  earth ;  for  the  old  order  changeth  and  the  present 
rich  will  lose  their  temporary  relative  advantage. 
But  not  in  this  will  their  misfortune  consist,  but 
rather  in  the  absence  on  their  part  of  a  true  appre- 
ciation of  the  Kingdom.  They  have  become  rich 
through  violating  the  principles  of  the  Kingdom. 
Therefore,  in  the  revolution  that  is  to  come  they 
who  are  now  first  will  be  the  last  because  of  the 
inferior  quality  of  their  social  morality. 

The  ethic  of  Jesus  can  be  fully  understood  only 
in  relation  to  the  renovated  moral  and  social  order 
which  it  is  the  immediate  object  of  that  ethic  to 
inaugurate. 

The  social,  revolutionary  character  of  Jesus'  ethic 
compared  with  that  of  His  contemporaries  is  brought 
out  in  the  following  passage  taken  from  the  writings 
of  O.  Holtzmann:  "In  contrast  to  fastings,  Sab- 
bath observance,  purification,  sacrifice,  and  public 
prayers,  Jesus  constantly  emphasizes  that  wherein 
He  finds  value  for  the  social  life  of  mankind.  He 
always  puts  the  social  virtues  above  the  most 
scrupulous  observance  of  the  ritualistic  prescrip- 
tions. Accordingly,  He  derives  the  individual 
duties,  not  as  the  preaching  of  the  scribes  was 
accustomed,  from  that  which  was  written  in  the 
law,  but  from  the  underlying  thought  of  a  social 
organization  of  mankind,  in  which  mercy,  justice, 
fidelity,  and  conciliation  are  supreme."  l 

Herein  we  have  the  fullest  development  of  the 

10.  Holtzmann  in  his  "Jesus  Christus  und  das  Gemein- 
schaftsleben  der  Menschen,"  p.  22. 


The  Theology  of  Jesus  101 

prophetic  conception  of  the  Messianic  era  and  the 
direct  contrast  to  the  Apocalyptic  conception.  This 
brings  us  to  the  more  detailed  consideration  of  the 
eschatological  problem  which  is  to  form  the  sub- 
ject matter  of  the  following  Chapter. 


102    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 


CHAPTER  VII 


In  studying  the  ethical  and  theological  teach- 
ings of  Jesus  we  have  been  at  the  same  time  dealing 
with  the  eschatological  problem  from  the  philo- 
sophical and  psychological  point  of  view.  We  have 
seen  that  His  Theology  and  ethic  is  as  essentially 
opposed  to  the  Apocalyptic  as  the  theology  and 
ethic  of  the  prophet  was  opposed  to  that  of  the 
i  priest.  Moreover,  the  thought  of  Jesus  about 
the  Kingdom  is  a  complete  organic  whole  without 
the  introduction  of  the  catastrophic  consumma- 
tion. In  fact,  that  idea  is  not  only  superfluous  but 
it  weakens,  if  it  does  not  contradict,  His  theological 
and  ethical  position.  If  God  be  immanent  and  the 
Kingdom  be  in  process  of  growth  and  develop- 
ment, a  cataclysmic  interruption  would  annul  the 
value  of  the  whole  moral  process.  By  the  inclusion 
of  the  Apocalyptic  expectation  Jesus  would  have  un- 
dermined the  absolute  authority  of  His  Own  ethic. 
It  would  of  necessity  become,  as  the  eschatologists 
consistently  hold  that  it  is,  merely  a  purely  theoret- 
ical or  interim  ethic. 

If  an  apologist  should  hold  that,  as  history  pro- 
ceeds not  only  by  a  slow  process  of  development, 
TSut  also  by  means  of  sudden  catastrophes,  Jesus,  in 
recognizing  that  fact,  would  but  logically  hold  the 
Apocalyptic  view,  it  would  only  be  necessary  to  say 


"  The  Eschatological  Problem"  103 

in  reply  that  the  cataclysms  that  the  historian  rec- 
ognizes are  of  a  different  kind  from  those  conceived  of 
by  the  Apocalyptic.  The  former  are  revolutions 
or  crises  growing  directly  out  of  the  developmental 
process  itself,  and  their  place  is  recognized  in  the 
prophetic  interpretation  of  history,  whereas  the 
Apocalyptic  intervention  of  God  was  conceived  of  as 
a  miraculous  and  magical  break  in  the  historic 
process  on  a  stupendous  scale.  To  hold  as  some 
do,  among  them  Harnack,  that  Jesus  made  a  syn- 
thesis of  these  two  divergent  views,  is  to  accuse 
Him  of  being  a  shallow  eclectic. 

Hard  as  it  is  to  conceive  how  Jesus  could  have 
made  a  synthesis  of  these  two  antagonistic  cosmic 
views,  it  is  extremely  easy  to  understand  how  His 
immediate  followers  might  have  been  led  to  do  so. 
We  now  turn  to  the  study  of  the  literary  problem 
for  further  light  upon  this  very  question.  If  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  were  essentially  anti-Apocalyp- 
tic, we  should  expect  to  find  some  traces  of  it  in  our 
text,  as  indeed  we  do  find  them. 

If  the  Apocalytic  scheme  of  things  were  wholly 
foisted  on  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus  we  must  explain 
the  processes — logical  or  psychological — whereby 
this  was  accomplished.  We  should  also  inquire 
what  element  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  would  most 
readily  yield  itself  as  an  opening  for  the  intrusion 
of  the  Apocalyptic  idea.  Furthermore,  if  the 
Apocalyptic  view  was  thus  grafted  into  the  teach- 
ing of  Jesus,  we  should  expect  to  find  marks  of  this 
process  in  our  Gospels.     This  would  be  apt  to  show 


104    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

itself  in  two  ways — by  the  extensive  interpolations 
into  the  sayings  of  Jesus  of  unauthentic  matter, 
and,  by  the  placing  upon  authentic  sayings  an 
Apocalyptic  interpretation  wholly  absent  from  the 
thought  of  Jesus. 

I 

It  is  needless  to  enumerate  again  the  points  of 
antagonism  between  the  theology  and  ethic  of 
Jesus  and  that  of  the  Pharisees  and  other  adherents 
of  the  Apocalypses.  We  are  concerned  now  with 
the  literary  evidences  of  specific  anti-Apocalyptic 
statements. 

The  most  striking  illustration  of  the  specific 
opposition  of  Jesus  to  the  whole  Apocalyptic  mech- 
anism is  found  in  His  condemnation  of  their  quest 
for  "signs"  which  were  to  be  interpreted  as  fore- 
boding the  nearness  of  the  coming  Kingdom.  In 
Daniel  and  in  the  Apocalypses  generally,  certain 
arbitrary  signs  are  given.  In  the  Book  of  Daniel 
such  signs  are  found  in  the  covert  allusions  to 
Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the  interpretation  of  Jere- 
miah's seventy  years  of  the  captivity  as  seventy- 
year  weeks,  the  "time,  times  and  half  a  time,"  the 
"abomination  that  maketh  desolate,"  are  illustra- 
tions of  the  kind  of  signs  sought  for.  There  was 
no  moral  value  or  significance  underlying  or  con- 
nected with  these  signs.  They  were  of  no  greater 
value  than  the  signs  of  most  popular  superstitions. 

In  the  Synoptics  we  have  very  direct  condemna- 
tion of  this  quest  for  external  signs  on  the  part  of 


"  The  Eschatological  Problem"  105 

Jesus.  In  Mark  8:11-12,  we  read  "Now  the 
Pharisees  came  out  and  started  to  argue  with  Him 
asking  Him  a  sign  from  heaven  by  way  of  tempting 
Him.     But  He  sighed  in  spirit  and  said, 

Why  does  this  generation  seek  a  sign? 

I  tell  you  truly,  no  sign  shall  be  given  this  generation. 

The  form  of  expression  "a  sign  from  heaven" 
suggests  that  the  Pharisees  were  asking  for  a  special 
miracle  but  this  idea  falls  away  in  the  Q  text  which 
gives  evidence  of  being  the  original  form.  Accord- 
ing to  this  the  Pharisees  simply  said,  "We  would 
seek  from  thee  a  sign."1  According  to  Mark's 
version  Jesus  simply  denied  that  the  kind  of  sign 
sought  w6uld  be  given  that  generation.  In  the  Q 
version,  while  refusing  to  give  an  arbitrary  or  exter- 
nal sign,  Jesus  offers  them  a  sign  with  a  deep  moral 
significance,  namely,  that  of  repentance,  in  the 
"sign  of  Jonah."  "But  He  said,  an  evil  and 
adulterous  generation  seeketh  after  a  sign  and  a 
sign  shall  not  be  given  it  except  the  sign  of  Jonah. 
.  .  .  The  men  of  Nineveh  shall  stand  up  in  judg- 
ment of  this  generation,  because  they  repented  at 
the  preaching  of  Jonah,  and  behold  here  is  more 
than  Jonah."2 

In  Matthew  16:  4,  we  have  the  rendering, 

It  is  an  evil  and  disloyal  generation  that  craves  a  sign, 
And  no  sign  shall  be  given  it  except  the  sign  of  Jonah.3 

1  Harnack,  "Sayings  of  Jesus,"  p.  266,  Sec.  30. 

2  Ibid. 

3  Moffat's  version,  with  footnote,  p.  22, 


106     Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

In  Matthew's  rendering  we  have  a  combination  of 
the  Markan  version  with  the  allusion  to  the 
(moral)  "sign  of  Jonah"  in  Q.  According  to  Har- 
nack,  Q  inserts  "For  as  Jonah  became  a  sign  to 
the  Ninevites  so  shall  the  Son  of  Man  be  to  this 
generation. "  The  moral  significance  of  the  sign 
is  here  retained  because  Jesus  compares  Himself 
with  Jonah  as  being  an  even  greater  preacher  of 
repentance.  But  in  Luke's  version  and  also  in  that 
of  Matthew,  there  is  a  tendency  to  make  Jesus  Him- 
self a  sign  in  the  non-moral  sense — just  such  a  sign 
as  Jesus  said  would  not  be  given  to  that  generation. 
Instead  of  comparing  Himself  with  Jonah  as  a 
preacher  of  repentance,  Jonah's  sojourn  for  three 
days  and  three  nights  in  the  belly  of  the  whale  (an 
external  non-moral  sign)  is  compared  to  Jesus' 
three  days  and  three  nights  spent  in  "the  heart  of 
the  earth."1  But  the  original  meaning  of  Jesus  is 
perfectly  clear.  The  evil  and  adulterous  (or  dis- 
loyal) generation  is  guilty  of  inconsistency  and 
folly.  While  neglecting  to  conform  its  life  to  God's 
Will  through  repentance  it  is  yet  looking  for  exter- 
nal signs  of  the  miraculous  coming  of  God.  In- 
stead of  looking  without  it  should  look  within  and 
reform  its  character  and  conduct.  Instead  of  look- 
ing for  the  Kingdom  of  God  coming  in  the  clouds 
it  should  follow  the  example  of  Nineveh,  the  Gen- 
tile city,  and  repent.  The  Gentile  city  of  old  shall 
stand  up  in  the  judgment  to  condemn  the  holy  city 

1  Matt.  12:  40. 


11  The  Eschatological  Problem'1  107 

of  the  Jews,  for  Jerusalem  refuses  to  repent  at  the 
preaching  of  a  greater  prophet  than  Jonah. 

In  Q  we  have  the  developmental  idea  of  the 
Kingdom  as  a  moral  leavening  and  as  a  growth  in 
the  parables  of  the  leaven  and  the  mustard  seed. 
In  Q  and  Mark  we  have  this  an ti- Apocalyptic 
polemic  directed  against  the  external  sign  of  the 
coming  of  a  ready-made  kingdom.  This  fact  re- 
moves any  difficulty  in  the  way  of  accepting  the 
anti-Apocalyptic  and  developmental  statement 
found  in  Luke  17:20.  "On  being  asked  by  the 
Pharisees  when  the  reign  of  God  was  coming,  he 
answered  them,  The  reign  of  God  is  not  coming  as 
you  hope  to  catch  sight  of  it.  No  one  will  say 
'Here  it  is'  or  'There  it  is,'  for  the  reign  of  God  is 
now  in  your  midst."  l 

The  survival  of  these  distinct  anti-Apocalyptic 
statements  in  Gospels  which  had  been  edited  by 
those  who  had  adopted  the  Apocalyptic  views,  is 
the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of  the  conscious 
opposition  of  Jesus  to  the  eschatology  of  the  Apoca- 
lypses. 

II 

If,  as  we  are  now  prepared  to  assert,  the  Apoca- 
lyptic scheme  of  things  were  wholly  foisted  on  to 
'^FTeach'ings  ot  Jesus,  we  must  now  inquire  By 
what  processe^Togical  or  psychological — this  re- 
versal of  His  thought  could  have  been  accomplished. 
For  not  only  did  His  earliest  followers,  who  had 

1  Moffat's  version. 


108     Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

known  Him  personally  in  life,  in  the  years  immedi- 
ately following  His  death  accept  and  teach  the 
Apocalyptic  expectation,  but  connected  Jesus  Him- 
self with  the  coming  Kingdom  as  its  central,  super- 
natural, Messianic  Figure,  Who  was  to  come  on  the 
clouds,  accompanied  by  angelic  armies.  They  not 
only  held  this  but  they  held  that  this  had  been 
explicitly  taught  by  Jesus  as  He  went  in  and  out 
among  them.  We  shall  first  consider  their  psy- 
chological processes,  and  then  ascertain  how  they 
fit  in  with  or  are  borne  out  by  the  literary  evi- 
dences. 

Our  sources  make  it  clear  that  the  crucifixion  of 
Jesus  threw  His  Apostles  into  profound  despair. 
The  Apocalypses  have  been  termed  "the  Gospel  of 
despair"  because  the  despairing  mood  is  the  psy- 
chological breeding-place  of  the  Apocalyptic  hope. 
There  is  first  the  belief  that  the  historic  process  has 
failed.  There  is  no  hope  except  as  that  failure  may 
be  retrieved  by  a  miracle.  Analogously,  the  Apos- 
tles believed  that  the  crucifixion  of  Jesus  marked 
the  failure  of  His  Messianic  career.  Out  of  their 
despair  there  was  born  the  hope  that  this  failure  of 
His  Cause  was  to  be  retrieved  by  a  miracle.  In  a 
few  days  after  His  death  His  Personal  adherents 
came  together  testifying  that  one  and  all  had  re- 
ceived unmistakable  personal  evidence  of  His  sur- 
vival. This  signified  that  God  Himself  had  placed 
upon  Jesus'  claims  to  the  Messiahship  the  final  seal 
of  approval.  Nay  more,  He  was  now  the  Messiah 
in  a  far  more  glorious  sense  than  they  had  ever 


"  The  Eschatological  Problem"  109 

before  dreamed.  Without  doubt  He  would  come 
in  a  few  weeks,  or  possibly  months,  and  restore 
the  kingdom  to  Israel,  placing  His  loyal  followers 
upon  thrones  of  judgment.  This  view  harmonized 
with  the  widely  accepted  Apocalyptic  expectation 
of  the  Jews.  The  Apostles  are  quick  to  discover 
not  only  that  their  risen  Master  fits  perfectly  into 
the  general  expectation  but  that  He  gives  to  it  a 
touch  of  immediacy  and  concrete  reality.  In  fact, 
once  the  Apocalyptic  view  has  been  accepted,  His 
place  in  it  as  witnessed  by  the  Apostles  becomes  so 
reasonable  that  thousands  of  Jews  soon  accept 
their  teaching,  among  them  even  members  of  the 
sect  of  the  Pharisees  against  whom  Jesus  had  di- 
rected His  most  unrelenting  polemic.  It  became 
well-nigh  self-evident  to  the  disciples  that  their 
Master  must  clearly  have  foreseen  this  and  hinted 
at  it  all  along.  Hence,  they  would  diligently 
search  His  words  to  discover  this  latent  meaning. 
Later,  as  time  moved  on,  and  the  expectation  failed 
to  be  realized  the  Apocalyptic  mood  prompted  more 
desperate  measures.  There  must  be  somewhere  an 
Apocalypse  of  Jesus.  The  demand  produced  the6' 
supply.  Apocalyptic  oracles  were  already  in  circu- 
lation. One  of  these  must  undoubtedly  have  come 
from  Him.  It  only  remains  to  decide  which  one 
and  then  embody  it  in  the  Gospels.  This  probably 
explains  the  origin  of  the  great  Apocalyptic  dis- 
course in  Mark  13,  and  its  subsequent  enlarge- 
ment and  editing  by  Matthew  and  Luke  follow 
naturally. 


no    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

III 

In  its  final  form  this  Apocalypse,  which  exhibits 
so  little  the  impress  of  the  Personality  and  familiar 
style  of  Jesus,  employs  all  the  Apocalyptic  device 
of  predating  and  turning  history  into  the  form  of 
prophecy  and  forging  the  authoritative  name. 

The  probable  connection  between  the  supposed 
predictions  and  the  events  in  history  of  the  early 
Church  thrown  into  the  form  of  prophecy  is  clearly 
made  by  H.  B.  Streeter  in  the  Oxford  Studies  in  the 
Synoptic  Gospels — page  180  and  following: 

We  notice  first  that  the  Apocalypse  (i.e.  St.  Mark  13) 
purports  to  have  been  delivered  privately  to  certain  dis- 
ciples. This  is  to  explain  how  it  is  that  it  has  hitherto 
been  unknown  to  Christians  in  general — a  mark  of  late 
date  of  publication.  We  are  reminded  of  the  secret 
traditions  from  particular  Apostles  produced  by  the  later 
Gnostics.  It  is  emphasized  that  the  long  delay  of  the 
Parousia,  which  was  such  a  difficulty  for  the  early  Church, 
had  been  foreseen  by  the  Master  and  privately  explained 
to  an  inner  circle.  ' '  But  it  is  not  the  end  yet ' ' l — He  had 
foreseen  the  series  of  persecutions  and  catastrophes,  in 
each  of  which  as  it  arrived  the  faithful  had  seen  the  har- 
binger of  that  end  which  never  came.  "Now  take  care, 
I  am  telling  you  of  it  all  beforehand"  (St.  Mark  13:  28) .2 
He  had  given  also  the  reason  of  His  delay.  It  was  that 
there  might  be  time  for  the  Gospel  to  be  first  preached  to 
all  the  Gentiles  (13:  10) — a  reason  suggested  by  the 
thought  in  Romans  11  (cf.  especially  verses  11,  12,  25), 

xSt.  Mark  13:  7. 

2  Genuine  material  is  here  used,  as  Jesus  had  expected  perse- 
cutions alike  for  Himself  and  His  followers. 


1 '  The  Eschatological  Problem  "  1 1 1 

that  the  conversion  of  Israel  was  predestinated,  but  post- 
poned till  the  Gentiles  had  been  gathered  in.  Famines, 
cf.  that  in  Acts  11:28,  earthquakes  at  Laodicea  in  61 
A.D.,  or  Pompeii  in  62  A.D.  He  had  foretold,  but  these 
were  but  the  beginnings  of  birth  pangs  (13:9),  that  is,  of 
the  calamities  which  it  was  generally  expected  would 
usher  in  the  Messianic  age.  He  had  seen,  too,  great 
world-wide  wars,  verse  8,  as  in  the  year  of  the  four  Em- 
perors culminating  in  the  sack  of  Jerusalem,  verses  14  to 
20 — a  time  in  which  "had  not  the  Lord  shortened  it  no 
flesh  would  have  been  saved" — all  this  the  Master  had 
foreseen.  He  had  foreseen  St.  Paul,  13:9,  accused  be- 
fore the  Sanhedrin,  five  times  scourged  in  the  synagogue, 
standing  before  Felix  and  Festus  (governors),  before 
Agrippa  and  Nero  (kings)  for  His  Name's  sake.  He 
had  foretold  the  horrors  of  the  Neronian  persecutions 
when  the  Christians  first  arrested  informed,  as  Tacitus 
relates,  on  their  brethren  ("brother  will  betray  brother 
to  death"  verse  12),  and  Christians  were  hated  by  all 
men,  verse  13,  accused,  says  Tacitus,  of  "odium  human i 
generis."  Lastly,  He  had  foreseen  one  final  peril,  the 
false  Christs  and  false  prophets  displaying  signs  and 
wonders,  who  might  "deceive  even  the  elect"  at  the  last 
moment  on  the  very  eve  of  His  return.    .    .    . 

The  second  object  is  to  encourage  those  whose  hopes 
are  failing.  Now  at  last  He  is  near  the  door,  13:  29,  His 
coming  will  follow  this  last  tribulation  as  closely  as  sum- 
mer follows  the  fig-tree's  leaves.1 

We  have  seen  that  the  object  of  the  Apocalypses 
was  to  encourage  with  the  hope  of  a  speedy  deliv- 
erance  those  who  were  suffering  persecutions  and 
1" Oxford  Studies,"  p.  180  f. 


112    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

loss.  Historic  events  are  recited  in  the  form  of 
prophecy  down  to  the  time  of  the  writer,  after 
which  the  real  prediction  begins,  usually,  as  in  this 
case,  of  the  speedy  coming  of  the  deliverer.  Here, 
as  in  all  the  other  Apocalypses,  the  actual  crucial 
prediction  has  remained  unfulfilled. 

Before  looking  further  for  traces  of  the  "eschatol- 
ogizing"  of  the  Gospels,  we  will  ask  what  factor 
or  factors  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  would  adapt 
themselves  as  affording  an  opening  for  the  grafting 
in  of  the  Apocalyptic  idea.  But  two  such  elements 
need  to  be  mentioned, — First,  the  primary  message 
of  Jesus,  "the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand." 
Second,  the  undoubted  fact  that  Jesus  had  proph- 
esied the  destruction  of  the  temple.  In  the  next 
chapter  we  shall  see  that  Jesus'  prophecy  of  the  de- 
struction of  the  temple  was  based  upon  prophetic 
hostility  to  the  cult  and  the  conviction  that  it  stood 
in  the  way  of  the  triumph  of  the  prophetic  religion. 
By  the  time  this  Apocalypse  was  written  the  author 
considered  the  destruction  of  the  temple  in  the  light 
of  a  calamity.  In  the  earliest  or  Markan  version 
we  are  told  that  immediately  after  this  prophecy 
Peter,  James  and  John  asked  Jesus  privately,  on 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  "When  shall  these  things  be 
and  what  signs  shall  be  when  these  things  shall  be 
fulfilled?"1  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  Jesus  had 
condemned  the  Pharisees  for  asking  for  a  sign  and 
had  told  them  that  they  should  have  no  sign  except 
that  of  the  prophet  Jonah,  He  is  now  represented 
1  Mk.  13:  3,  4. 


{ *  The  Eschatological  Problem  "  113 

as  acceding  to  a  request  made  in  private  which  He 
had  refused  to  comply  with  in  public. 

In  the  next  later  account,  incorporated  in  Mat- 
thew's Gospel,  the  audience  has  increased  from  the 
three  to  include  the  twelve.  The  sign  asked  for  is 
not  only  that  of  the  destruction  of  the  temple  but 
also  "What  shall  be  the  sign  of  thy  coming  and  of 
the  end  of  the  world?"1  In  order  to  realize  the 
lateness  of  this  passage  we  have  only  to  recall  that 
after  the  death  of  Jesus  it  was  very  plain  that  the 
Apostles  had  not  been  prepared  for  His  resurrection. 
These  words  imply  a  thorough  familiarity  on  their 
part  with  the  thought  not  only  of  His  resurrection 
but  of  His  second  coming. 

The  latest  account  of  all,  in  Luke,  chapter  21, 
represents  the  Apocalyptic  discourse  as  no  longer 
having  been  given  to  a  small  circle  but  as  having 
been  spoken  in  the  temple  itself,  to  a  large  gathering 
of  people.  Here  again  He  is  represented  as  naming 
a  variety  of  the  very  "signs"  that  He  had  previ- 
ously declared  would  not  be  given  to  that  genera- 
tion, and  the  "signs"  are  the  usual  external  ones, 
such  as,  "signs  in  the  sun,  and  in  the  moon,  and  in 
the  stars;  and  upon  the  earth  distress  of  nations, 
with  perplexity;  the  sea  and  waves  roaring"  .  .  . 
(v.  25).  In  connection  with  the  sign  of  the  "abom- 
ination of  desolation"2  we  have  a  significant  aside 
to  the  understanding  reader.  "Let  him  that  read- 
eth   understand."     This   plainly   betrays   the   fact 

1  Matt.  24:  3. 

2Mk.  13:  14;  Mt.  24:  15. 


H4    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

that  the  Evangelist  is  not  reporting  a  spoken  dis- 
course but  is  copying  a  document  which  bears  all 
the  earmarks  of  being  a  small  pseudepigraphical 
Apocalypse.  According  to  this  small  Apocalypse 
the  "coming  of  the  Son  of  Man"  is  to  follow  close 
upon  the  destruction  of  the  temple.  After  this 
event,  as  time  passed  by  without  the  promised  ful- 
fillment, new  matter  is  introduced  to  explain  that 
the  delay  had  really  been  foreseen.  Hence  the 
Apocalypse  bristles  with  contradictions.  In  one 
place  we  read  that  the  Parousia  is  to  follow  imme- 
diately upon  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  (or  the 
temple),  " immediately  after  the  tribulation  of 
those  days."  l  This  gives  us  the  date  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse as  immediately  following  that  event.  After 
the  lapse  of  some  time  an  explanatory  statement  is 
inserted  (earlier  in  the  discourse):  "The  Gospel 
must  first  be  published  among  all  nations." 2  When 
Luke's  Gospel  received  its  present  form  a  greater 
period  of  time  had  elapsed  since  the  destruction  of 
the  temple  and  the  further  words  in  explanation 
thereof  are  introduced.  "And  Jerusalem  shall  be 
trodden  down  of  the  Gentiles,  until  the  time  of  the 
Gentiles  be  fulfilled."3 

IV 

In  his  appendix  to  the  "Oxford  Studies"  Streeter 
brings  out  the  tendency  of  the  Evangelists  to  elab- 

1  Mt.  24:  29;  Mk.  13:  24. 

2  Mt.  24:  13;  Mk.  13:  10. 
3Lk.  21:  24. 


1 '  The  Eschatological  Problem  "  115 

orate  the  eschatological  idea  which  only  occurs  in 
simple  form  in  Q  (in  three  passages  which  speak  of 
the  Kingdom  as  coming  unexpectedly  that  is,  with- 
out premonitory  signs).  His  syllabus1  contains  the 
following  summary: 

In  Q  the  emphasis  is  rather  on  the  conception  of  the 
Kingdom  as  already  present  and  to  be  extended  by  a 
process  of  gradual  growth.  Sayings  implying  that  its 
appearance  is  future  and  catastrophic  also  occur,  but 
they  are  not  elaborated  in  any  detail. 

In  St.  Mark — especially  in  Chapter  13 — the  emphasis 
is  on  the  future  catastrophic  conception,  which  is  worked 
out  with  much  detail  of  the  conventional  Apocalyptic 
type. 

In  Matthew  the  detail  is  still  further  elaborated,  and 
both  by  what  he  adds  and  what  he  omits  the  catastrophic 
conception  is  enhanced. 

The  same  tendency  was  no  doubt  in  operation  even 
before  Q  was  written  down,  but  some  residuum  of  Apoca- 
lyptic eschatology  in  the  authentic  teachings  of  Christ  is 
required  to  explain  the  beliefs  of  the  early  Church. 

This  "residuum"  I  believe,  to  have  been  (as  in- 
dicated above)  a  combination  of  the  proclamation 
"the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  hand"  (and  the  fact 
that  Jesus  considered  Himself  as  the  Prophet- 
Messiah),  taken  with  His  prophecy  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  temple  which  was  misinterpreted  by  His 
followers  as  a  catastrophic  sign,  instead  of  an  event 
in  the  moral  progress  of  the  history  of  the  King- 
dom.    We    shall    now    consider    a    few    instances 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  424. 


n6    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

wherein  the  Apocalyptic  idea  was  read  into  au- 
thentic expressions  of  Jesus. 

The  most  striking  of  these  is  the  tendency  to  read 
an  eschatological  significance  into  the  phrase  ''Son 
of  Man."  The  Evangelists  believed  that  this 
phrase  embodied  a  cryptic  Messianic  sign.  We 
have  already  seen  that  the  phrase  in  the  original 
Aramaic  signified  "a  man"  or  "mankind,"  and 
that  it  was  also  used  as  a  circumlocution  for  the 
personal  pronoun.  After  it  had  been  literally 
translated  into  Greek  the  Aramaic  idiom  was  lost. 
Nevertheless  the  phrase  frequently  occurs  in  our 
Gospels  as  a  self-designation  by  Jesus  of  which 
we  cite  the  following:  "The  Son  of  Man  hath 
not  where  to  lay  His  head."1  "The  Son  of  Man 
is  not  come  to  destroy  men's  lives  but  to  save 
them."2  "The  Son  of  Man  (ie.,  T)  came  eating 
and  drinking."3 

The  first  Evangelist  shows  the  strongest  ten- 
dency to  read  the  Apocalyptic  idea  into  the  text. 
For  example,  Luke  9:  27 — "  But  I  tell  you  of  a  truth 
there  be  some  standing  here  which  shall  not  taste  of 
death  till  they  see  the  Kingdom  of  God" — becomes 
in  Matthew  16:28,  "Verily,  I  say  unto  you  there 
be  some  standing  here  which  shall  not  taste  of  death 
till  they  see  the  Son  of  Man  coming  with  His  angels." 
The  Lukan  rendering  is  supported  by  Mark  9:1. 

1  Mt.  8:  20;  Lk.  9:  58. 
2Lk.  9:56. 

»Mt.  11:19.  For  further  illustrations  see  Mt.  12:32,  40; 
13:37;  16:  13. 


The  Eschatological  Problem  "  117 

The  earlier  rendering  permits  of  a  developmental 
interpretation  on  the  understanding  that  the  devel- 
opment is  expected  to  move  quickly.  The  Mat- 
thean  version  has  become  catastrophic  and  Apoca- 
lyptic. In  place  of  the  developmental  parable  of 
the  seed  growing  secretly,1  he  substitutes  the  catas- 
trophic parable  of  the  tares,  introducing  the  phrase 
"Son  of  Man"  in  the  meaning  of  exalted  Messiah. 
As  this  tendency  is  so  plainly  discernible  it  makes  it 
extremely  doubtful  whether  Jesus  could  ever  have 
applied  the  expression  to  Himself  in  this  Messianic 
sense.  The  only  Q  passage  in  which  we  find  this 
expectation  of  Jesus  of  His  Personal  return  is  as 
follows:  "Every  one,  therefore,  that  shall  confess 
me  before  men,  him  will  I  (or  the  Son  of  Man)  con- 
fess before  the  angels  of  God;  but  whosoever  shall 
deny  me  before  men,  him  will  I  also  deny  before  the 
angels  of  God."2  Here  Jesus  is  represented  as  lay- 
ing the  utmost  stress  upon  His  Own  Person  as  an 
indispensable  factor  in  individual  salvation.  It 
expresses  the  idea  of  "the  Petrine  Gospel"  in  the 
early  Chapters  of  Acts,  rather  than  Jesus'  own 
Gospel  of  the  Kingdom.  It  contradicts  the  sense 
of  the  Q  passage  immediately  following,  "And 
whosoever  shall  speak  a  word  against  the  Son  of 
Man  (or  Me),  it  shall  be  forgiven  him,"  and  the 
well-authenticated  passage  in  Matthew  7:  21,  "Not 
every  one  that  saith  unto  me,   Lord,   Lord,  shall 

*  Mk.  4:  26  f. 

2  See  Harnack's  "Sayings  of  Jesus,"  p.  262. 


n8    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven;  but  he  that 
doeth  the  Will  of  my  Father  which  is  in  Heaven. "  1 

In  one  passage  the  first  Evangelist  falls  into  a 
self-contradiction  by  his  introduction  of  the  phrase 
"Son  of  Man"  as  equivalent  to  Messiah.  Accord- 
ing to  the  version  of  Mark,  Jesus  asks  His  disciples 
on  the  way  to  Caesarea  Philippi  "Whom  do  men 
say  that  I  am?"2  This  becomes,  in  Matthew's 
version,  "Whom  do  men  say  that  I,  the  Son  of  Man, 
am?"  If  Jesus  were  accustomed  to  apply  the 
phrase  to  Himself  in  the  sense  of  Messiah,  He  would 
thereby  have  given  the  answer  to  His  question  in 
stating  it.  Hence,  there  would  have  been  no  oc- 
casion for  surprise  at  the  answer  of  Peter. 

In  conclusion  we  will  note  further  illustrations  of 
the  tendency  of  Matthew  to  eschatologize  the  Gos- 
pel Message. 

He  introduces  the  Apocalyptic  phrase  "consum- 
mation of  the  ages"  not  elsewhere  found  in  the 
Gospels.  He  employs  the  Apocalyptic  "weeping 
and  gnashing  of  teeth"  six  times,  which  does  not 
occur  in  Mark  and  occurs  but  once  in  Luke.  He 
omits  two  sayings  which  imply  the  presence  of  the 
Kingdom,  "I  saw  Satan  fall  from  Heaven"  and 
"The  Kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observa- 
tion, for  behold  it  is  in  your  midst,  "  which  St.  Luke 
records  and  which  it  may  fairly  be  assumed  existed 
inQ. 

We  have  now  seen  that  the  presumption  created 

JSee  below,  p.  135. 

2Mk.  8:27.     Cf.  Mt.  16:  13. 


1 '  The  Eschatological  Problem  "  119 

by  the  antagonism  between  the  theology  and  ethic 
of  Jesus  and  that  of  the  Apocalypses,  that  he  re- 
jected the  eschatological  Messianic  expectation,  is 
corroborated  by  the  study  of  the  Synoptic  Gospels 
which  show  evidence  of  that  idea  as  having  been 
interpolated  on  a  large  scale  and  its  meaning  forced 
into  authentic  sayings  of  Jesus.  We  are  logically 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was  no  real 
" Apocalyptic  residuum"  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus. 
We  now  will  resume  the  task  of  reconstructing  that 
Gospel  in  its  positive  aspects. 


120    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 


CHAPTER  VIII 

THE  HISTORIC  JESUS — THE  PROPHET  MESSIAH 

The  theology  of  the  Catholic  Church  centered  in 
a  series  of  questions  concerning  the  Person  of  Jesus 
and  grouped  under  the  general  designation  of 
"Christology."  All  the  emphasis  came  to  be  con- 
centrated on  the  Person  of  Jesus  as  the  center  of 
theology  and  His  own  theological  teachings  were 
not  only  ignored  but  unconsciously  contradicted  or 
set  aside.  We  have  now  to  inquire  into  the  question 
of  Jesus'  own  view  of  His  mission  and  office,  as  re- 
vealed in  hLis  sell -consciousness,  so  far  as  that  finds 
expression  in  His  authentic  teachings.  To  do  so 
we  must  set  aside  the  traditional  Christological  as- 
sumptions and  examine  the  development  of  Chris- 
tology  with  a  view  to  warrant  how  much  of  it  can 
be  substantiated  by  the  authority  of  Jesus  Himself. 

We  have  now  to  search  for  the  starting  point  of 
the  Christological  development.  The  word  "Chris- 
tology"  is  derived  from  "Christos"  the  Greek 
translation  of  Messiah.  "Christology,"  therefore, 
begins  with  the  identification  of  Jesus  with  the 
Messiah.  This  identification  has  already  taken 
place  in  our  earliest  document.  "The  compiler  of 
Q  could  not  imagine  otherwise  than  that  Jesus  was 
the  Messiah,  consecrated  as  the  Son  of  God  at  the 
Baptism."1  This  might  seem  to  be  the  earliest 
1  Harnack  "Sayings  of  Jesus,"  p.  243. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    121 

statement  of  New  Testament  Christology.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  it  is  the  third  stage  in  Christological 
development.  It  dates  the  Messiahship  from  the 
descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  at  the  time  of  the  Bap- 
tism of  Jesus  accompanied  by  the  Voice  from 
Heaven, 

Thou  art  my  son,  the  Beloved, 
today  have  I  become  thy  father. 

This  was  the  form  of  Christology  which  later  be- 
came known  as  "Adoptionism."  An  earlier  form  is 
that  which  is  found  in  the  "  Petrine  Christology"  in 
the  discourses  attributed  to  Peter  in  the  early  Chap- 
ters of  Acts.  In  this  form  the  Messiahship  of 
Jesus  begins  at  the  resurrection  and  is  to  be  vin- 
dicated at  the  Parousia.  Though  exalted  to  the 
right  hand  of  God,  Jesus,  so  far  as  His  Messiahship 
is  concerned,  is  a  Christus  futurus — is  to  become 
Messiah  at  the  Parousia.  But  back  of  this  as  the 
earliest  form  of  Messiahship  we  have  Jesus'  own 
conception  of  His  Mission.  This  question  is  to  re- 
ceive further  consideration  which  will  point  to  the 
conclusion  that  Jesus  regarded  Himself  as  the 
Messiah  in  the  sense  that  He  was  the  Prophetical 
Inaugurator  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

We  now  have  reached  three  steps  in  the  New 
Testament  development  of  Christology:  (1)  Jesus 
appears  as  the  Prophet-Messiah;  (2)  Jesus  is 
preached  as  "the  Messiah  Who  is  to  come";  (3) 
Jesus  is  regarded  as  having  been  made  Messiah  at 
His  Baptism.     Later  on  the  beginning  of  the  Mes- 


122    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

siahship  is  dated  back  to  the  birth  of  Jesus  in  the 
"Gospel  of  the  Nativity"  which  introduces  both 
the  political  and  supernatural  elements  by  provid- 
ing genealogies  through  Joseph  back  to  David,  and 
at  the  same  time  denying  Him  human  paternity 
through  His  conception  by  the  Holy  Ghost.  In 
Matthew's  version  Mary's  Son  is  given  the  name  of 
Jesus  because  "He  will  save  His  people  from  their 
sins." l  In  Luke's  Gospel  the  angel  Gabriel  is  made 
to  promise  that  the  Son  of  Mary  would  sit  upon  the 
throne  of  David  and  "reign  over  the  house  of  Jacob 
forever  and  to  His  reign  there  will  be  no  end."2 
Here  we  have  a  synthesis  of  the  political-monarchical 
with  the  Apocalyptic,  for  this  view  evidently  ex- 
presses the  expectation  of  the  early  Church  which 
awaited  fulfillment.  This  represents  a  fourth  step 
in  Christological  development.  The  fifth  step  is 
found  in  St.  Paul's  conception  of  the  Christ  as  the 
"Heavenly  Man."3  This  Messiah  was  divine  by 
nature.  Yet  it  would  have  been  "a  prize"  for  Him 
to  have  been  "on  an  equality  with  God" — "He  did 
not  snatch  at  equality  with  God"  .  .  .  "There- 
fore God  raised  Him  high  and  conferred  on  Him  a 
Name  above  all  Names."4  The  final  stage  is  taken 
in  the  prologue  to  the  Fourth  Gospel  which  makes 
Him  Christ  from  before  the  beginning  of  creation, 
co-eternal  with  God,    and    co-equal.     We   note    in 

1Mt.  1:21. 
2  Lk.  1 :  32,  33. 
3 1  Cor.  15:  47. 
«  Phil.  2:  5-1 1. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    123 

passing  that  St.  Paul's  view  was  perilously  near 
the  "Homoiousion"  which  was  condemned  by  the 
Council  at  Nicea  as  the  Arian  heresy. 

The  omission  of  the  Gospel  of  the  Infancy  in  Q 
and  St.  Mark  may  be  due  to  the  view  which  they 
seem  to  have  held  that  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus 
began  at  the  Baptism.  Its  omission  from  the 
Fourth  Gospel  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
author  held  that  the  Messiahship  was  not  to  be 
dated  from  the  conception  of  Jesus  but  as  existing 
from  eternity.  St.  Paul's  omission  may,  similarly, 
be  due  to  his  opinion  that  Jesus  existed  as  a  Divine 
Being  before  His  birth.  In  St.  Matthew  and  St. 
Luke  the  idea  is  implied  that  the  Messiahship  of 
Jesus  was  associated  with  the  circumstances  of  His 
Nativity,  but  at  the  same  time  they  seem  to  incor- 
porate the  earlier  view  that  it  was  conferred  at  the 
Baptism.  Having  summarized  the  development  of 
Christological  doctrine  in  the  New  Testament  we 
now  return  to  investigate  more  fully  the  "Chris- 
tology"  of  Jesus  Himself. 

Harnack  has  pointed  out  that  all  of  the  Christo- 
logical elements  in  Q  are  contained  in  the  introduc- 
tory stories  of  the  Baptism  and  Temptation.  Else- 
where it  is  only  implicit  with  the  exception  of  the 
doubtful  passages  about  the  second  coming.  To 
quote  once  more  from  Harnack,  "The  Christology 
of  the  source  as  the  compiler  understood  it,  presents 
a  perfectly  simple  and  consistent  picture.  The 
compiler  Q  could  not  imagine  otherwise  than  that 
Jesus  was  the  Messiah,  consecrated  as  Son  of  God 


124    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

at  the  Baptism;  all  the  sayings  of  his  compilation, 
therefore,  stand  out  against  this  background.  If, 
however,  we  think  away  the  introduction  the  re- 
sultant picture  is  essentially  different.  We  have 
now  before  us  a  compilation  of  sayings  in  which  the 
speaker  is  a  teacher,  a  prophet,  one  who  was  more 
than  a  prophet — the  final  decisive  Messenger  of 
God;  but  so  surely  as  he  demands  unconditional 
obedience  to  his  commands,  in  which  the  Will  of 
God  is  expressed,  and  calls  upon  men  to  follow  him, 
so  little  does  he  do  this  with  the  expressed  self -wit- 
ness; '  I  am  the  Messiah.'  " l 

In  regard  to  Mark's  Gospel  as  the  result  of  criti- 
cal investigation  he  reaches  a  similar  conclusion, 
"that  our  Lord  during  the  first  and  longest  period 
of  His  ministry  did  not  speak  of  Himself  as  Messiah 
(because  He  at  first  neither  regarded  Himself  as  the 
Messiah,  nor  indeed  could  so  regard  Himself),  and 
even  rejected  the  title  of  Messiahship  when  it  was 
applied  to  Himself,  but  that,  on  the  other  hand,  He 
was  possessed  with  the  strongest  conviction  that,  as  a 
Messenger  of  God,  He  was  entrusted  with  a  Mission 
of  decisive  import,  and  that  He  knew  God  as  none 
other  knew  Him — a  conviction  to  which  He  again 
and  again  gave  expression."2 

The  weight  of  critical  opinion  is  on  the  side  of 
the  view  that  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus  remained  a 
secret  till  the  incident  on  the  road  to  Caesarea 
Philippi  when  He  accepted  Peter's  designation  of 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  244. 

2  Harnack,  Op.  cit.  p.  244. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    125 

Himself  as  the  Christ.  Harnack  holds  that  in  ac- 
cepting the  title  He  applied  it  to  Himself  in  the 
futuristic  sense.  This  is  the  view  of  the  eschatolo- 
gists  who  believe  that  Jesus  had  become  convinced 
of  the  necessary  failure  of  His  prophetic  mission  and 
that  He  looked  for  the  retrieval  of  that  failure  by 
His  own  return,  after  His  death,  as  the  supernatural 
"Son  of  Man."  This  explanation  is  as  superficial  as 
it  is  easy.  We  shall  examine  our  records  of  this  inci- 
dent with  a  view  to  ascertaining  if  the  true  interpreta- 
tion of  Jesus'  thought  of  the  Messiahship  is  not  the 
prophetic  conception  of  the  "Suffering  Servant." 

This  incident  is  omitted  in  Q  and  finds  its  simplest 
recital  in  Mark  8:  27,  f : — "Then  Jesus  and  His  dis- 
ciples set  off  from  the  villages  of  Caesarea  Philippi ; 
and  on  the  road  He  inquired  of  His  disciples  'Who 
do  people  say  that  I  am?'  'John  the  Baptist,'  they 
told  Him,  'though  some  say  Elijah  and  others  say 
you  are  one  of  the  prophets.'  So  he  inquired  of 
them  'And  who  do  you  say  I  am?'  Peter  replied, 
'You  are  the  Christ.'  Then  He  forbade  them  to  tell 
anyone  about  Him.  And  He  proceeded  to  teach 
them  that  the  Son  of  Man  had  to  endure  great  suf- 
fering, to  be  rejected  by  the  elders  and  scribes,  to 
be  killed  and  after  three  days  to  rise  again;  He 
spoke  of  this  quite  freely.  Peter  took  Him  and  be- 
gan to  reprove  Him  for  it.  But  He  turned  on  him 
and  noticing  His  disciples  reproved  Peter,  telling 
him  'Get  behind  Me,  you  Satan!  Your  outlook  is 
not  God's  but  man's.'  "  l 

1  Moffat's  version. 


126    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

The  passages  in  Matthew  about  Peter  the  Rock 
on  whom  the  Church  is  to  be  built  are  generally  re- 
garded as  a  late  interpolation,  as  well  as  the  words 
of  praise  commending  Peter's  insight.  After  ac- 
cepting the  title  of  Messiah  Jesus  enjoins  secrecy, 
we  are  bound  to  think,  because  the  popular  mean- 
ing of  that  word  was  quite  different  from  His  own. 
He  proceeds  to  explain  to  the  Twelve  that  His 
Messiahship  entails  suffering  and  death  at  the  hands 
of  the  elders,  high  priests  and  scribes.  Words  are 
here  introduced  by  the  Evangelist  foretelling  the 
resurrection,  but  in  view  of  the  absence  of  that 
expectation  in  the  minds  of  the  incredulous  disciples 
when  it  was  announced  to  them,  this  must  have 
been  introduced  as  an  afterthought  by  the  Evangel- 
ist. The  words — "Peter  took  Him  and  began  to 
reprove  Him  for  it,"  are  incongrous  with  the  words 
revealing  the  stupendous  miracle  of  the  resurrection 
which  they  immediately  follow.  The  real  interpre- 
tation, then,  seems  to  be  that  having  accepted  the 
title  of  Messiah  Jesus  proceeds  to  explain  the  nature 
of  the  Messiahship,  which  is  not  that  of  a  conquering 
king,  or  the  supernatural  Being  coming  in  the  future 
on  the  clouds  of  Heaven,  but  is  that  of  the  Prophetic 
Servant  of  God  Who  gives  His  life  in  inaugurating 
the  Kingdom.  Peter's  rebuke  arose  from  the  fact 
that  he  did  not  accept  any  such  mournful  interpre- 
tation of  the  Messiahship,  but  looked  upon  it  from 
the  monarchical  point  of  view  with  all  its  attendant 
splendor.  This  explains  the  retort  of  Jesus  "Get 
behind  me,  you  Satan,  your  outlook  is  not  God's 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    127 

but  man's."  This  reminds  us  of  the  story  of  the 
Temptation  in  which  Jesus  rejected  the  temptation 
to  become  a  world-conquering  Messiah,  in  which 
He  is  represented  as  saying  to  the  Tempter — "Get 
thee  hence,  Satan."  Peter  now  appears  in  the  role 
of  Tempter  and  hence  the  severity  of  the  epithet 
" Satan."  In  this  instance,  as  in  the  earlier,  Jesus 
refused  to  be  an  exploiting  Prince.  Jesus  is  then 
represented  as  warning  His  followers  that,  if  they 
are  to  continue  to  follow  Him,  they  must  deny 
themselves  and  take  up  their  crosses  and  follow 
Him  and  be  prepared  to  lose  their  lives  for  His  sake 
and  for  the  Gospel's. 

I 

Having  ascertained  that  the  Christology  of  Jesus 
consisted  in  His  self-consciousness  as  the  Prophet- 
Messiah,  we  have  now  to  take  account  of  His  pro- 
phetic career. 

We  have  seen  that  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  clearly 
belonged  to  the  prophetic  school.  It  is  very  clear 
that  He  was  recognized  as  a  prophet  by  His  con- 
temporaries. At  His  "triumphal  entry"  into  Jeru- 
salem He  is  hailed  by  "the  multitude"  as  Jesus, 
"the  prophet  of  Nazareth  of  Galilee."1  After  His 
resurrection  certain  of  His  disciples  are  reported  by 
St.  Luke  to  have  characterized  Him  as  "a  prophet 
mighty  in  deed  and  word  before  God  and  all  the 
people."2     In  the  Petrine  discourses  early  in  Acts 

1  Mt.  21:  11. 
2Lk.  24:  19. 


128    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

He  is  identified  with  the  "  prophet  like  unto  Moses," 
promised  in  Deuteronomy.  It  is  also  equally  clear 
that  He  referred  to  Himself  under  the  title  of 
"prophet." l  His  method  of  teaching  resembled  that 
of  the  prophets  and  contrasted  with  that  of  His 
contemporaries,  "For  He  taught  them  like  an  au- 
thority, not  like  their  own  scribes."2  His  Gospel 
like  that  of  the  prophets  contains  two  parts — the 
ministry  of  rebuke  and  the  ministry  of  consolation. 
This  latter  was  central  in  that  the  proclamation  of 
the  nearness  of  the  Kingdom  was  fraught  with  a 
promise  of  deliverance  from  all  personal  and  social 
ills. 

Jesus  constantly  expressed  the  highest  admira- 
tion for  the  ancient  prophets.  This  admiration  was 
extended  to  John  the  Baptist  because  Jesus  rec- 
ognized him  to  be  a  true  prophet.  He  declared 
that  all  the  prophets  were  living  in  the  Kingdom  of 
God.3  He  pronounced  those  to  be  blessed  who  are 
found  worthy  to  share  in  the  persecutions  that  had 
been  meted  out  to  the  prophets.  He  exhorted  His 
followers  to  be  like  the  prophets.  As  we  shall  see, 
it  was  part  of  His  program  for  the  ushering  in  of 
the  Kingdom  of  God  to  organize  a  movement  of 
prophets.  Jesus'  prophetic  message  of  rebuke  was 
directed  against  the  rich  and  the  Pharisees  and  the 
hierarchy — all  of  whom  belonged  to  the  exploiting 
classes.     He  denounced  the  exploiters  of  His  day, 

1  Mt.  13:  57;  Mk.  6:  4;  Lk.  4:  17,  24;  13:  33. 

2  Mt.  7:29. 
aLk.  13:28, 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    129 

as  the  prophets  had  denounced  the  exploiters  of  their 
day,  as  the  enemies  of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  His 
indignation  was  directed  against  those  who  are 
harsh  toward  their  fellows,  the  vengeful  who  look 
to  God  for  forgiveness  while  exacting  the  uttermost 
farthing  from  their  debtors;  against  the  blind  lead- 
ers of  the  blind,  who  stand  in  the  way  of  the  people's 
attaining  the  knowledge  that  is  essential  to  their 
welfare;  against  the  mammon  worshippers  who 
hypocritically  pretend  to  be  worshippers  of  God, 
those  who  oppress  the  weak,  the  children,  the 
widows;  against  those  who  shut  up  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  against  men,  who  declare  themselves  the 
favorites  of  God  while  holding  the  harlots,  the 
publicans,  and  the  Gentiles  to  be  eternally  damned. 
In  God's  day,  Jesus  declared,  those  who  have  made 
themselves  first  shall  be  last,  for  the  publicans, 
harlots  and  Gentiles  will  enter  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  by  the  way  of  penitence  while  the  alleged 
righteous  ones  will  exclude  themselves  by  their  own 
exclusiveness. 

The  literature  of  invective  reaches  a  climax  of 
fury  in  the  discourse  against  the  scribes  and  Phari- 
sees.1 The  pretensions  to  righteousness,  to  religious 
authority,  to  high  moral  character,  are  relentlessly 
unmasked.  "Woe  to  you,  you  irreligious  scribes 
and  Pharisses!  You  are  like  tombs,  whitewashed; 
they  look  comely  on  the  outside,  but  inside  they 
are  full  of  dead  men's  bones  and  all  manner  of  im- 
>Mt  23;  and  Lk.  11. 


130    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

purity.  So  to  men  you  seem  just,  but  inside  you 
are  full  of  hypocrisy  and  iniquity."  l 

Jesus  in  this  discourse  saw  His  struggle  with  the 
Pharisees  as  a  continuation  of  the  warfare  of  the 
prophets  against  the  adherents  of  external  and 
ceremonial  religion.  He  challenged  them,  the  de- 
scendants of  those  who  slew  the  prophets,  to  "fill 
up  the  measure  of  their  fathers"  by  slaying  Him, 
the  Successor  of  the  prophets.  Their  ceremonial 
scrupulosity  aroused  nothing  but  His  scorn  and 
contempt.  Having  been  reproved  by  the  Pharisees 
for  neglecting  the  customary  ceremonial  ablutions 
before  eating,  Jesus  replied:  "Not  that  which  en- 
tereth  into  a  man  but  that  which  proceedeth  out  of 
the  heart  defileth  a  man."2  He  uttered  the  basic 
principle  which  divided  the  ceremonial  from  the 
prophetic  type  of  religion.  In  so  doing,  as  Holtz- 
mann  declares,  "Jesus  pronounces,  with  one  sweep, 
all  the  laws  which  are  contained  in  Deuteronomy, 
chapters  n  to  15,  and  which  abundantly  engaged 
the  attention  of  the  Pharisees,  to  be  without  bind- 
,  ing  force."3  Holtzmann  might  have  gone  further 
I  by  stating  that  Jesus  regarded  these  ordinances  as 
useless  and  absurd. 

Against  the  priestly  exploiters  of  His  day  Jesus 
proceeded  not  only  with  words,  as  against  the  Phari- 
sees, but  with  deeds. 

Jesus  broke  radically  with  legalism  and  Judaism. 

1  Matt.  23:  27,  28,  Moffat's  version. 

2Mt.  15:17;  Mk.  7:18. 

3  O.  Holtzmann,  Op.  cit.  p.  22. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    131 

(Later  on  His  disciples  undertook  to  repair  the 
breach.)  His  prophetic  campaign  was  carried  on 
against  the  temple  cultus.  Like  His  predecessors, 
the  insurgent  prophets,  He  held  the  temple  and  the 
Jewish  hierarchy  to  be  the  archenemy  of  true  re- 
ligion. It  was  so  false  that  it  could  not  hope  for 
reformation.     It  must  be  destroyed. 

The  ancient  prophets,  Amos  and  Jeremiah,  had 
prophesied  the  destruction  of  the  temple  in  Bethel 
and  of  the  temple  of  Jerusalem  in  their  own  day  on 
the  ground  that  they  were  false  to  the  true  religion 
of  Jehovah.  The  Great  Unknown  had  declared 
that  it  was  absurd  to  suppose  that  any  temple  built 
with  hands  could  serve  as  the  abiding  place  of  God. 
In  the  spirit  of  the  two  former  Jesus  prophesied  the 
overthrow  of  the  temple  and  its  complete  destruc- 
tion. In  characteristic  homely  phrase,  Jesus  had 
expressed  His  view  of  the  hopelessness  of  reforming 
institutionalized  Judaism  as  follows: 

No  one  sews  a  piece  of  undressed  cloth  on  an  old  coat, 
For  the  patch  breaks  away  from  it,  and  the  tear  is  made 

worse ; 
Nor  do  men  pour  fresh  wine  into  old  wine-skins, 
Otherwise  the  wine-skins  burst,  and  the  wine  is  spilt — 

the  wine-skins  are  ruined. 
They  put  fresh  wine  into  fresh  wine-skins  and  so  both  are 

preserved.1 

We  know  that  Jesus  prophesied  the  desl  ruction  of 

the  temple  and  we  are  on  safe  ground  in  holding 
1  Mt.  9: 16,  17,  Moffat's  version. 


132    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

that  this  prophecy  carried  with  it  a  hostile  intent. 
We  have  evidence  that  when  the  disciples  lapsed 
into  the  Apocalyptic  belief  they  regarded  this  proph- 
ecy as  the  prediction  of  a  catastrophe.  Accord- 
ing to  Mark  Jesus  was  charged  at  His  trial  with 
having  made  the  statement  "I  will  destroy  this 
temple  that  is  made  with  hands  and  within  three 
days  I  will  build  another  not  made  with  hands."1 
In  Matthew's  version  the  statement  is  softened  to 
read:  "I  am  able  to  destroy  this  temple  of  God 
and  build  it  again  in  three  days."2  Both  these 
Evangelists  declare  that  this  was  a  false  charge,  or 
at  least  that  it  was  made  by  false  witnesses.  Yet 
from  other  sources  we  can  get  a  pretty  clear  con- 
firmation of  the  view  that  this  was  precisely  what 
Jesus  did  say.  He  may  have  said  it  only  to  the 
Twelve,  and  perhaps  this  was  the  "secret"  which 
Judas  betrayed.  The  Johannine  account,  though 
later,  and  bearing  marks  of  editorial  interpretation, 
nevertheless  is  confirmatory  of  the  testimony  of  the 
witnesses.  Instead  of  the  words  "I  will  destroy 
this  temple  made  with  hands,"  the  Fourth  Evangel- 
ist gives,  as  an  authentic  utterance  of  Jesus,  ac- 
companying the  cleansing  of  the  temple,  the  words 
— "Destroy  this  sanctuary #and  I  will  raise  it  up  in 
three  days."3  His  actual  words  on  this  occasion 
are  interpreted  as  showing  "zeal  for  the  temple" 
instead  of  hostility  toward  it.     The  words  are  alle- 

1  Mk.  14:  58. 
2Mt.  26:61. 
8  John  2 :  19. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    133 

gorized  by  the  Evangelist,  by  being  made  to  refer  to 
the  temple  of  His  Body,  its  destruction  at  the  cruci- 
fixion, and  its  subsequent  resurrection,  but  he  is 
constrained  to  admit  that  the  Apostles  did  not 
realize  that  this  was  the  meaning  of  Jesus'  state- 
ment till  after  the  resurrection.  According  to  the 
Fourth  Evangelist  Jesus  gave  this  answer  to  those 
who  asked  Him  to  state  by  what  right  and  authority 
He  cleansed  the  temple.  In  Mark's  Gospel  when 
this  question  was  put  to  Him  we  are  told  He  re- 
fused to  give  any  answer  till  His  questioners  had 
answered  Him  the  question  by  what  authority  John 
the  Baptist  was  acting.1  His  questioners  refused 
to  answer,  whereupon  Jesus  refused  to  answer 
them,  thereby  implying  that  both  He  and  John 
were  acting  under  the  same  prophetic  Heaven-born 
authority. 

Holtzmann,2  was  the  first  critic  in  modern  times 
to  recognize  the  fact  that  Jesus'  claim  to  prophetic 
authority  to  destroy  the  temple,  and  to  erect  any 
other  religious  movement  on  its  ruins,  was  equivq^ 
lent  to  a  claim  to  the  Messiahship. 

Jesus  in  attacking  the  money-changers  and  the 
dealers  in  sacrificial  animals  was  striking  at  a 
priestly  monopoly  which  was  an  instrument  of 
graft  and  oppression.  The  words  with  which  He 
accompanied  the  act  are  illuminating.  He  quoted 
from  the  universalistic  Great  Unknown  the  ideal 
"My  house  shall  be  the  house  of  prayer  lor  all  na- 

1  Mk.  11:  27. 

2  Leben  Jesu,  p.  327. 


134    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

tions";  from  Jeremiah  He  quotes  the  actual — "but 
ye  have  made  it  a  den  of  thieves."  1  Mark  gives  the 
earlier  quotation  in  full;  the  later  Synoptists  omit 
the  words  "for  all  the  peoples."  From  the  evidence 
we  may  infer  that  Jesus  considered  it  a  part  of  His 
religious  campaign  to  overthrow  the  temple  worship 
and  its  supporters.  He  said  in  effect:  "I  will  de- 
stroy this  temple  made  with  hands,  the  perverter 
of  true  religion,  the  exploiter  of  men,  the  source  of 
false  conceptions  of  God,  and,  in  a  brief  space,  I 
will  establish  a  new  temple  in  its  place,  not  a  physi- 
cal temple  built  with  hands,  but  a  spiritual  society 
of  penitent  souls  united  to  God,  seeking  first  His 
Kingdom  and  bringing  it  in  through  hearing  my 
words  and  doing  them."  It  is  perfectly  plain  that 
the  representatives  of  the  hierarchy  understood 
perfectly  what  they  were  doing  when  they  sought 
and  accomplished  the  death  of  Jesus,  their  great 
prophetic  antagonist. 

II 

Having  a  clear  idea  of  what  Jesus  aimed  at,  we 
have  now  to  consider  the  program  which  He  pro- 
posed as  the  method  for  attaining  the  end. 

Let  us  first  of  all  ask  what  position  Jesus  assigned 
to  Himself  in  the  movement  which  He  was  inaugu- 
rating. He  had  no  doubt  that  He  was  its  Divinely 
appointed  Leader.  Jesus  was  a  prophet  but  at  the 
same  time  He  was  more  than  a  prophet.     What  the 

1  Isa.  56:7;  Jer.  7:11.  See  also  Markup;  Mt.  21:13;  Lk. 
19:46. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    135 

earlier  prophets  had  foreseen  and  striven  for  was  to 
be  accomplished  through  His  agency  and  Leader- 
ship. He  said  to  His  followers,  "  Blessed  are  your 
eyes,  for  they  see,  and  your  ears,  for  they  hear;  for 
verily  I  say  unto  you  that  many  prophets  (and 
kings)  desired  to  see  the  things  which  ye  sec  and 
have  not  seen  them,  and  to  hear  the  things  which 
ye  hear,  and  have  not  heard  them."  l  Like  the 
prophets  He  did  not  lay  the  crucial  emphasis  on 
His  Person  but  on  His  Message  which  was  God's 
truth.  He  did  not  make  Himself  the  center  of  a  I 
cult  to  be  an  object  of  worship,  but  He  did  put 
Himself  in  a  position  of  Leadership  and  appeals  1  I 
for  obedience  on  the  part  of  all  sincere  seekers  after 
the  Kingdom.  To  enter  the  Kingdom  it  was  not 
enough  to  call  Him  "Lord,"  or  to  preach  in  His 
Name.  Only  he  who  heard  His  words  and  obeyed 
them  was  like  the  man  who  founded  his  house  on  a 
rock  while  he  who  built  on  any  other  doctrine  (such 
as  that  of  the  scribes  and  Pharisees)  built  on  shift- 
ing sands.  Jesus  is  conscious  of  such  a  solidarity 
existing  between  Himself  and  the  realm  <>I  His 
Father  that  He  holds  (according  to  Q)  that  every 
one  that  confesses  Him  before  men  He  will  confes 
before  God  and  the  angels.  In  Mark's  version  we 
have  probably  an  earlier  and  more  accurate  render- 
ing of  the  same  saying:  "For  whosoever  shall  ln- 
ashamed  of  Me  and  of  My  words  in  this  adulterous 
and  sinful  generation,  I  shall  be  ashamed  of  hi  in." 
1  This  is  a  Q  passage,  Section  26.  Cf.  Mt  i.v  l6,  17;  Lk.  10: 
23,  24. 


136    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

or,  "the  Son  of  Man  shall  be  ashamed  of  him  in  the 
coming  Kingdom." 

Jesus  disclaims  any  title  to  exceptional  goodness 
when  He  says  on  being  addressed  as  "Good  Master" 
— "Why  callest  thou  Me  good?"1  In  this  revela- 
tion of  His  self-consciousness  we  see  that  in  con- 
trast to  the  self-consciousness  of  goodness  that 
marked  the  Pharisees,  Jesus  felt  that  He  (no  matter 
how  complete  His  devotion  of  Himself  to  the 
Father)  was  no  better  than  the  normal  man  should 
be.  God  is  good  in  a  sense  in  which  no  other,  in- 
cludingjesus  Himself,  is  good.  Jesus  gives  TTim- 
self  a  central  position  through  the  authority  which 
He  claimed  to  offer  consolation  to  the  needy  and 
afflicted,  as  where  He  makes  His  own  the  words  of 
the  Deutero- Isaiah: 

The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me; 

for  he  has  consecrated  me  to  preach  the 

Gospel  to  the  poor, 
He  has  sent  me  to  proclaim  release  for  the 

captives 
and  recovery  of  sight  for  the  blind, 
to  set  free  the  oppressed,  , 
to  proclaim  the  Lord's  year  of  favor.2 

Another  passage  in  which  Jesus  presents  Himself 
in  the  role  of  Revealer  of  God  and  consoler  of  men 
through  His  Leadership  is  found  in  the  so-called 
Johannine  passage  in  the  Synoptics.3 

1  Mt.  19: 17. 

2Lk.  4:  18,  Moffat's  version. 

3  Mt.  11:25-30;  Lk.  10:21-22. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    137 

Prof.  Bacon  in  an  article  in  the  Harvard  Theo- 
logical Review,  October,  19 16,  adopts  the  opinion 
of  E.  Norden  (in  his  "Agnostos  Theos")  that  this 
passage  is  a  quotation  of  a  fragment  of  Lyric  Wis- 
dom. In  Luke  1 1 :  49,  Jesus  quotes  a  passage  which 
He  attributes  to  the  "Wisdom  of  God."  The  same 
passage  is  given  by  Matthew  as  an  original  saying 
of  Jesus.  The  former  passage  is  arranged  by  Bacon 
to  bring  out  its  lyric  form  as  follows: 

I 
I  thank  thee,  Father,  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth, 
Because  thou  didst  hide  these  things  from  the  wise  and 

understanding 
And  didst  reveal  them  unto  babes. 
Yea,  Father,  for  such  was  the  good  pleasure  in  thy  sight. 

II 

All  things  were  revealed  to  me  by  my  Father; 
But  none  hath  known  the  Son  save  the  Father; 
Neither  hath  any  known  the  Father  save  the  Son 
And  he  to  whomsoever  the  Son  willeth  to  reveal  Him. 

Ill 
Come  unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden ; 
Take  my  yoke  upon  you  and  learn  of  me, 
And  ye  shall  find  rest  for  your  souls, 
For  my  yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  is  light. 

This  passage  has  been  held  to  teach,  in  the  middle 
strophe,  that  Jesus  claimed  an  exclusive  knowledge 
of  the  Father,  in  spite  of  the  fact  thai  in  the  first 
strophe  Jesus  represents  these  things  as  having 
been  revealed   "unto  bab  But    the   essential 


138    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

thing  for  us  is  that,  whether  this  be  an  original 
lyric  of  Jesus,  or  one  which  He  by  quoting  has  made 
His  own,  He  nevertheless  has,  as  mystic  God-knower 
and  prophet,  the  office  of  God-revealer  and  consoler 
through  His  Example  and  Leadership. 

Jesus'  mission  was  militant.  In  a  Q  passage  He 
asks  "Think  ye  that  I  am  come  to  send  peace  on 
the  earth?"  and  answers,  "I  am  not  come  to  send 
peace  but  a  sword."  His  militancy,  however,  was 
purely  moral  and  in  no  sense  contemplated  the  use 
of  force.  What  He  expected  of  His  loyal  followers 
comes  out  in  His  Commission  to  the  Twelve,  in 
Matthew  10:5  and  following.  They  are  to  pro- 
claim the  near  approach  of  the  Kingdom.  They 
are  to  exercise  the  ministry  of  healing,  but  they  are 
not  to  engage  in  exploitation  of  any  kind.  They 
are  not  to  carry  money,  extra  clothing,  or  provi- 
sions, nor  to  accept  any  of  these  things  beyond  their 
immediate  needs.  They  are  not  to  accept  money 
at  all.  They  are  to  subsist  upon  such  hospitality 
as  may  be  offered  them  freely.  They  are  going 
forth  to  encounter  danger  as  a  direct  result  of  their 
doctrine.  They  are  to  go  out  as  sheep  among 
wolves.  They  are  warned  that  prophetic  persecu- 
tions and  sufferings  await  them.  The  claims  of  the 
Kingdom  are  to  be  put  before  the  claims  of  the 
family  and  of  life  itself.  He  who  goes  forth  as  a 
follower  of  Jesus  takes  his  life  in  his  hands.  He 
who  carries  the  cross — the  burden  of  the  message  of 
the  Kingdom — carries  also  the  implement  on  which 
he  may  meet  his  death.     No  promise  of  reward  is 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    139 

contained  in  connection  with  this  hazardous  enter- 
prise. The  fate  which  is  to  overtake  the  Teacher  is 
still  more  likely  to  overtake  the  disciples.  The  re- 
ward is  spiritual  as  we  learn  from  the  last  Beatitude 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  in  the  exhortation, 
"Rejoice  and  be  exceeding  glad  for  great  is  your 
reward  in  Heaven,  for  so  persecuted  they  the 
prophets  which  were  before  you." 

The  prophet's  reward  consists  in  his  opportunity 
to  co-operate  with  God;  and  Jesus  refuses  to  hold 
out  to  His  followers  any  promise  of  special  prefer- 
ment in  the  coming  Kingdom.  This  comes  out 
very  clearly  in  His  refusal  of  the  request  of  Zebe- 
dee's  children  to  be  permitted  to  sit  at  His  right 
hand  and  His  left  in  the  coming  Kingdom.1  In- 
stead He  promises  them  nothing  but  the  privilege  of 
being  baptized  with  Him  in  the  baptism  of  blood 
and  of  drinking  with  Him  the  cup  of  death.  This 
incident  casts  doubt  upon  the  authenticity  and 
genuineness  of  the  passage  wherein  Jesus,  in  answer 
to  a  request  of  Peter  to  know  what  the  Apostles 
were  to  get  out  of  their  devotion  to  Him,  is  alleged 
to  have  said  that  they  should  sit  on  thrones  judging 
the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  According  to  Q— Jesus 
once  said — "They  who  follow  me  shall  sil  on 
thrones."  Perhaps  the  Evangelist  finding  this  iso- 
lated statement  invented  the  setting  as  a  frame- 
work for  the  saying.  As  for  the  saying  itself  it 
may  easily  have  been  derived  from  the  book  o\ 
Enoch— traces  of  the  influence  of  which  we  have 
1  Mt.  20:  20. 


140    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

already  noted  as  frequent  in  the  Gospels.     I n  Enoch, 
chapter  108,  verse  12,  we  read, 

And  I  will  bring  forth  in  shining  light  those  who  have 
loved  my  holy  name  and  I  will  seat  each  on  the 
throne  of  his  honor. 

Another  similar  Enoch  passage  is  found  in  chapter 
51,  verse  3: 

And  the  elect  ones  shall  in  those  days  sit  on  my  throne. 

But  the  program  of  Jesus  comprehended  a  moral 
Leadership  of  conduct,  as  well  as  of  words.  This 
program  of  conduct  namely,  the  prophetic  law  of 
service,  was  not  merely  valid  as  a  "war  measure" 
but  it  was  intended  both  to  inaugurate  the  King- 
dom and  to  remain  its  underlying  principle  of  com- 
munity life  after  it  should  be  established.  This 
new  principle  of  action  was  to  supersede  "the  lord- 
ship of  the  Gentiles"  as  well  as  every  other  form  of 
exploitation  which  the  prophets  and  Jesus  had  de- 
nounced. This  brings  us  back  to  the  consideration 
of  the  ethic  of  Jesus  which  we  shall  show  not  to 
have  been  an  interim-ethic  but  an  absolute,  which 
was  not  regarded  as  a  thing  of  mere  speculative  in- 
terest, but  as  an  actual  program  to  govern  the  daily 
conduct  of  ordinary  men  and  women.  To  be  sure 
its  demands  sound  highly  impracticable  in  the  pres- 
ent order  but  that  simply  serves  to  accentuate  the 
fact  that  the  ethic  of  Jesus  postulates  the  new  social 
order  founded  upon  the  divine  principle  of  loving 
co-operation  and  service. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    141 

Many  have  supposed  that  Jesus  expected  all 
people  to  live  without  toil,  directly  clothed  and  fed 
by  the  Father's  bounty  when  the  Kingdom  of  God 
should  come.  This  has  been  inferred  from  the  un- 
derlying assumption  that  He  conceived  that  future 
coming  of  the  Heavenly  community  in  accordance 
with  the  Apocalyptic  ideas.  Because  He  pointed 
out  that  the  lilies  of  the  field  are  clothed  without 
spinning  and  the  wild  birds  are  fed  without  sowing, 
reaping  or  gathering  into  storehouses,  and  because 
He  urged  men  not  to  anxiously  accumulate  a  pro- 
vision against  the  days  to  come,  it  is  inferred  that 
He  believed  men  could  live  without  work.  His 
own  life  and  the  lives  of  the  Apostles  during  the 
period  of  His  ministry  are  taken  to  indicate  that  He 
Himself  lived  without  toil. 

It  is  true  that  Jesus  nowhere  categorically  advo- 
cates the  necessity  of  daily  labor.  But  does  He 
not  everywhere  clearly  assume  its  necessity?  From 
boyhood  He  worked  at  the  trade  of  His  father  and 
was  known  to  His  fellow  townsmen  as  "Jesus,  the 
Carpenter."  At  times  we  have  glimpses  of  Him 
assisting  His  fishermen  disciples  at  their  work,  for 
this  doubtless  is  the  historic  basis  underlying  tin- 
stones of  the  miraculous  catch  of  fishes.  His  ap- 
proval of  toil  comes  out  constantly  in  His  parables. 
The  laborers  in  the  vineyard,  the  sowers  and  the 
reapers,  the  shepherd  in  the  hills,  the  fishermen  at 
their  nets,  the  woman  mixing  leaven  with  her  meal, 
the  man  building  his  house  on  a  rock,  the  merchant 
on  his  journey,  the  steward  administering  an  estate, 


142    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

the  servants  increasing  the  talents  entrusted  them 
by  trading — all  of  these  and  others  Jesus  uses  not 
only  with  implied  approval  but  as  actual  illustra- 
tions of  essential  aspects  of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 
Moreover,  the  law  of  service  itself  is  unthinkable 
except  as  it  is  connected  with  work  for  others.  All 
of  this  shows  plainly  that  Jesus'  thought  of  the 
community  was  not  that  of  the  Apocalypse  with  its 
visions  of  miraculous  abundance,  but  was  that  of  a 
society  of  men  performing  their  daily  tasks,  deliv- 
ered from  all  anxiety  and  worry  about  the  future. 
The  more  I  read  the  scattered  precepts  which 
belong  to  the  body  of  the  ethical  teaching  of  Jesus — 
the  more  am  I  convinced  that  the  absolute  quality 
of  that  ethic  is  summed  up  in  the  single  phrase 
"Be  like  God."  Not  only  does  His  ethic  consist  in 
the  synthesis  of  the  "first  and  second  command- 
ments of  the  law,"  love  to  God  and  love  to  man 
(the  latter  put  on  complete  parity  with  the  former 
and  made  to  include  love  for  enemies),  but,  because 
men  are  really  sons  of  God,  this  attitude  is  held  to 
be  perfectly  normal.  The  gist  of  the  whole  matter 
is  found  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  in  Mat- 
thew's Gospel,  the  5th  chapter,  43-48:  "You  have 
heard  the  saying,  'You  must  love  your  neighbor 
and  hate  your  enemy.'  But  I  tell  you,  love  your 
enemies  and  pray  for  those  that  persecute  you,  that 
you  may  be  sons  of  your  Father  in  Heaven : 

He  makes  his  sun  rise  on  the  evil  and  the  good, 
and  sends  rain  on  the  just  and  the  unjust. 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    143 

For  if  you  love  only  those  who  love  you,  what 
reward  do  you  get  for  that? 
do  not  the  very  taxgatherers  do  as  much  ? 
and  if  you  only  salute  your  friends,  what  is 
special  about  that? 
do  not  the  very  pagans  do  as  much? 
You  must  be  perfect  as  your  heavenly  Father  is  per- 
fect.1 

The  ethic  of  Jesus  is  conceived  as  the  spontane- 
ous product  of  a  life  lived  in  love  to  God  and  in 
service  to  the  universal  community  of  mankind. 
It  is  an  ethic  of  true  inwardness  bearing  the  out- 
ward fruits  of  a  life  conscious  of  its  solidarity  with 
God  and  the  company  of  GocTs^rTliniaii  clTTTcTren. 
There  is  no  externally  imposed  law.  The  law  of 
God  "  written  in  the  heart,"  as  the  prophet  named 
it,  will  not  only  secure  the  fulfillment  of  the  com- 
mandments of  the  law,  but  a  man's  conduct  will  be 
the  spontaneous  expression  of  his  character  and  not 
a  mere  outward  conformity  to  an  external  law  from 
fear  of  punishment  or  hope  of  reward.  If  a  man  is 
inwardly  in  personal  relation  with  God,  his  con- 
duct will  surpass  what  is  required  in  the  law.  In 
Q  we  have  a  saying  which  seems  to  support  a  Rab- 
binical and  legalistic  regard  for  the  letter  of  tin- 
law.  "It  is  easier  for  heaven  and  earth  to  pass 
away  than  for  an  iota  of  the  law  to  lapse."  Taken 
in  contrast  to  Jesus'  customary  disregard  of  the 
ceremonial  law  this  seems  a  paradox.     The  paradox 

1  Moffat's  version. 
2Lk.  16:17. 


144    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

disappears,  however,  if  we  keep  in  mind  the  dis- 
tinction which  Jesus  made  between  "the  least" 
and  the  "great"  commandments  of  the  law.  Ac- 
cording to  Jesus  "the  least  commandment"  is  of 
greater  importance  because  it  has  to  do  not  only 
with  external  conduct  but  with  the  sources  of  that 
conduct  in  the  inner  life.  The  least  commandment 
is  what  the  prophet  meant  by  the  law  written  in  the 
heart.  "Thou  shalt  not  kill"  is  a  great  command- 
ment of  the  ancient  law.  "Thou  shalt  not  hate  or 
be  angry"  is  the  corresponding  least  commandment, 
— of  little  consequence  in  the  eyes  of  the  unthink- 
ing man,  but  of  greater  consequence  in  the  eyes  of 
God, — determining  the  inner  temper.  "Thou  shalt 
not  commit  adultery"  is  another  great  command- 
ment. The  least  commandment  is  "Thou  shalt  be 
pure  in  heart."  "Thou  shalt  not  steal"  is  included 
and  surpassed  in  the  commandment  "Thou  shalt 
not  worship  mammon."  The  "great  command- 
ment" determines  what  a  man  does — the  "least 
commandment"  concerns  both  what  a  man  is  as 
well  as  what  he  does,  and  it  is  easier  for  heaven  and 
earth  to  pass  away  than  for  one  of  these  "least 
commandments"  to  drop  out  of  the  moral  law. 

What  the  eschatologists  have  held  to  be  an  "in- 
terim-ethic" is  in  reality  an  absolute  and  eternal 
ethic  whose  binding  force  is  present  and  immediate; 
whereas  our  own  ethic  which  holds  the  ethic  of 
Jesus  to  be  impracticable  is  really  the  interim  ethic. 
We  say  of  that  ethic,  as  Kirsopp  Lake  seems  to  say, 
"We  cannot  live  up  to  this  under  existing  social 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    145 

conditions  and  the  present  quality  of  human  nature." 
Jesus  says,  in  effect,  "The  present  social  order  and 
present  human  nature  are  not  true  to  God,  they 
must  therefore  be  changed."  We  say,  "As  the 
Kingdom  of  God  has  not  yet  come  we  must  defend 
ourselves,  accumulate  property,  and  defend  it." 
But  in  so  doing  we  put  our  own  temporal  interests 
and  temporary  comfort  before  the  Cause  of  the 
Kingdom.  Like  the  Apocalyptic  writers  we  are 
waiting  for  the  miracle  of  the  Kingdom  to  happen. 
Jesus  bade  us  seek  the  Kingdom, — not  to  wait  for 
it  but  to  initiate  it  by  living  as  its  true  citizens  are 
to  live.  He  realized  all  that  this  demanded  in  the 
way  of  personal  loss  and  injury.  For  the  interim 
they  would  be  as  sheep  among  wolves — they  would 
suffer  the  fate  of  martyrs  and  prophets,  but  in  the 
end  which  He  believed  to  be  not  far  distant  the 
meek  would  inherit  the  earth. 

Our  "modern"  point  of  view  is  that  of  Nietzsche 
who  thought  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  "a  doctrine 
for  weaklings."     In  reality  it  is  the  doctrine  of  the 
world's  moral  heroes, — the  prophets,  and  those  who 
follow  their  lead.     These  are  the  true  "supermen" 
who  are  willing  to  find  their  lives  by  losing  them  for 
the  sake  of  the  Kingdom.    Their  greatness  is  meas-  % 
ured  by  the  capacity  for  sacrifice.     1  he  strong  man  t> 
is  the^man  who  is  strong  to  suffer.     The  superhu-  ' 
man  strength  and  divine  greatness  of  Jesu^  is  mani- 
fested upon  the  cross  whereon  He  prayed  for  His 
enemies,  and  it  is  by  the  power  of  this  Cross  that 
He  is  to  redeem  and  renovate  the  world. 


146    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

III 

In  spite  of  the  absolute  emphasis  which  the  older 
theology  has  put  upon  the  death  of  Jesus  as  the 
crowning  element  in  His  life  of  redeeming  love,  it 
has  not  yet  done  justice  to  its  profound  significance. 
This  has  been  because  it  has  largely  regarded  His 
death  as  a  drama  staged  by  God  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind.  It  has  regarded  that  death  as  arising 
from  a  predetermined  necessity.  It  has  "mecha- 
nized "it.  It  has  found  in  it  an  analogy  to  the  death 
of  sacrificial  victims  required  by  the  priestly  theol- 
ogy. Finally,  it  has  regarded  it  as  1 1  substitutionary 
in  the  sense  that  the  martyrdom  of  the  Son  of  God 
has  been  held  as  forever  excusing  the  martyrdom  of 
the  sons  of  God. 

By  connecting  the  death  of  Jesus  with  His  pro- 
phetic teaching  and  prophetic  career  and  by  rec- 
\  ognizing  that  it  represents  a  universal  prophetic 
principle  and  not  the  priestly  substitution  of  an 
innocent  victim  for  a  guilty  sinner;  and  by  recog- 
nizing the  still  profounder  fact  that  that  death  was 
not  a  mere  legalistic  compounding  of  sin  but  an 
aggressive  incident  in  the  warfare  for  the  eradication 
of  all  sinning — we  shall  be  able  to  understand  the 
significance  which  the  death  of  Jesus  had  in  His 
own  Mind  as  the  crowing  act  in  His  career  as  In- 
augurator  of  the  Reign  of  God. 

Jesus  did  not  die  simply  because  He  claimed  to 
be  the  Messiah.  It  was  not  an  offense  against  the 
Jewish  law  to  make  such  a  claim.     He  died  be- 


The  Historic  Jesus — The  Prophet  Messiah    147 

cause  He  was  the  Messiah  of  the  prophetic  type. 
In  the  long  conflict  between  the  Hebrew  prophets 
and  the  exploiting  priesthood  (which  was  a  prop 
and  mainstay  of  the  existing  evil  world-order  of 
exploitation)  the  priesthood,  by  every  possible  de- 
vice, had  sought  to  silence  the  prophets  by  threats 
of  punishment  and,  if  these  did  not  avail,  by  death. 
The  situation  in  the  days  of  Jesus  is  thus  set  forth 
by  Prof.  Charles: 

"The  rabbinic  scholars  taught  that  the  prophets 
and  Haggiographa  would  cease  to  be — for  then-  Is 
nothing  in  them  that  is  not  in  the  law.  The  law  is 
to  endure  forever,  and  'any  prophet  who  attempted 
to  annul  one  of  its  laws  would  be  punished  by  death' 
(Toseph  14:12)."  "From  the  time  of  Nehemiah 
onward  prophecy  could  get  no  hearing."  l 

Because  of  His  forcible  entrance  into  the  temple 
precincts  and  His  denunciation  of  the  corrupt  traffic 
in  sacrificial  animals  and  His  prophetic  determina- 
tion to  overthrow  the  whole  priestly  corrupt  and 
exploiting  institution,  He  came  under  the  direel 
condemnation  of  the  rabbinic  law  and  incurred  the 
death  penalty.  To  be  sure,  as  we  have  seen,  this 
act  was  a  practical  assertion  of  His  Messianic  claim 
in  a  prophetic  sense.  But  this  was  no  offense  in 
the  eyes  of  the  Roman  law.  To  secure  Hi-  con- 
demnation at  the  hands  of  the  Roman  procurator 
and  the  infliction  of  the  death  penalty,  He  was  ac- 
cused of  claiming  to  be  the  Messiah,  in  the  political 

1  Charles,  in  the  Introduction  to  the  Second  Volume  of  tin: 

"Apocrypha  and  Pseudepigrapha,"  p.  vii. 


148    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

sense  as  "pretender"  to  the  throne  of  David.  This 
claim  was  not  an  offense  against  the  rabbinic  law, 
but  it  was  an  act  of  rebellion  against  the  Roman 
Empire.  Pilate  doubtless  understood  the  fraudu- 
lent nature  of  the  charges  made  by  the  priestly 
conspirators  and  sought  to  have  Jesus  released. 
But  he  yielded, — as  an  easy  way  of  quelling  the 
spirit  of  mob  violence  instigated  by  the  priesthood. 
i  And  so  on  the  Cross  the  Prophet- Messiah  became 
the  Prophet- Martyr,  the  world's  "Saving  Victim," 

/    and  the  Cross  was  made  the  symbol  of  the  warfare 

[of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  149 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE  FOLLOWERS  OF  JESUS  SUBSTITUTE  A  MESSIANIC 
CULT  FOR  HIS  BROTHERHOOD  OF  THE  KINGDOM 

The  great  tragedy  in  the  history  of  the  prophetic 
religion  has  not  been  that  the  prophets  were  slain 
but  that  their  messages  fell  upon  deaf  or  unin- 
telligent ears.  The  injury  to  Jesus  by  the  death 
penalty  at  the  hands  of  His  enemies  was  less  than 
the  injury  done  to  the  Cause  for  which  He  lived 
and  died  by  those  who  called  themselves  His  fol- 
lowers but  who  failed  to  understand  His  theology 
or  obey  His  ethics.  The  crucifixion  through  mis- 
understanding is  more  tragic  than  the  crucifixion  on 
the  cross.  The  prophetic  religion  of  Jesus,  the  aim 
of  which  embraced  the  elimination  of  all  exploita- 
tion of  mankind,  in  a  few  generation  fell  into  the 
control  of  the  sons  and  successors  of  the  exploiters 
against  whom  He  had  made  war,  and,  in  a  few  cen- 
turies, an  exploiting  ecclesiasticism  flourished  in 
His  Name  and  under  the  cloak  of  His  authorita- 
tive sanction.  It  is  in  more  modern  times  that  the 
inconsistency  between  the  lives  of  Christians  and 
the  Founder's  teachings  have  been  felt  as  a  reproach. 
The  substitutionary  cult  idea  of  a  vicarious  atone- 
ment and  saving  union  with  a  redeeming  God,  had 
come  to  be  regarded  as  exempting  His  followers 
from  living  up  to  the  standards  which  He  set.  "In- 
consistency" thereby  became  the  normal  and  ac- 


150    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

cepted  characteristic  of  the  Churchman,  just  as  it 
had  been  that  of  the  adherent  of  the  Jewish  sacri- 
ficial cult.  The  ideal  of  holiness  became  ceremonial, 
sacramental,  or  a  matter  of  a  purifying  " faith" 
apart  from  works.  To  this  result  the  influence  of 
the  writings  of  Paul  largely  contributed.  The  an- 
cient sacrificial  principle  of  the  priestly  code,  which 
had  been  the  principle  attacked  by  all  the  prophets 
and  Jesus  Himself,  was  given  the  sanction  of  eccle- 
siastical authority  when  the  sacraments  were  made 
the  central  feature  of  what  had  come  to  be  a  "sote- 
riological"  cult. 

We  have  now  to  consider  how  this  process  was 
virtually  accomplished  within  the  life  of  the  genera- 
tion that  produced  the  New  Testament  writings  in 
their  present  form.  Four  movements  will  receive 
our  attention:  (i)  The  reversion  of  the  Jerusalem 
Church  to  Apocalyptism  and  the  loss  of  the  pro- 
phetic ethic.  (2)  The  Hellenistic  "deacons,"  as 
the  perpetuators  of  Jesus'  prophetic  doctrine.  (3) 
Paulinism  and  its  incomplete  synthesis  of  oppos- 
ing religious  elements.  (4)  Ephesian  Christianity 
which  transformed  the  prophetic  religion  into  a 
"Mystery  Cult." 

I 
The  process  of  the  surrender  of  the  distinctive 
prophetic  character  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  began 
when  His  earliest  interpreters  substituted  their 
own  teachings  about  Jesus,  for  Jesus'  teachings 
about  God  and  the  Reign  of  God.     In  place  of  His 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  151 

program  they  put  one  which  He  had  condemned, 
namely,  the  Apocalyptic  process  of  passive  expect- 
ancy for  a  miracle  to  happen — (in  His  own  expected 
appearance  bringing  the  Kingdom  of  God  to  earth 
from  the  heavens).  The  process  of  bringing  the 
free  prophetic  religion  of  Jesus  under  subjection 
to  the  Apocalyptic  eschatology  was  chiefly  the  work 
of  Simon  Peter,  the  leader  of  the  Twelve.  The  re- 
ligion which  Peter  founded  after  the  death  of  Jesus 
was  a  special  Apocalyptic-Messianic  cult  which 
sought  to  live  at  peace  within  the  Jewish  national 
cult,  against  which  Jesus  had  begun  a  campaign 
of  eradication. 

In  the  Book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  Simon 
Peter  appears  as  the  leader  of  the  followers  of  Jesus 
in  connection  with  the  appointment  of  Matthias. 
"That  a  man  who  but  a  few  weeks  before  had  re- 
peatedly and  flagrantly  denied  his  Master,  should 
so  soon  recover  the  confidence  of  his  associates, 
and  even  appear  as  their  leader  and  spokesman,  is, 
to  say  the  least,  surprising,  and  might  well  be 
doubted,  were  it  not  confirmed  by  the  undisputed 
preeminence  accorded  to  him  on  many  other  occa- 
sions throughout  these  early  days." l  The  explana- 
tion of  Peter's  recovery  probably  lies  in  the  fact 
that  Peter  (according  to  Paul,  and  the  best  critical 
opinion  of  to-day  follows  him)  was  the  first  to  re- 
ceive the  message  of  the  risen  Lord.  This  fact 
(confirmed  by  the  subsequent  experience  of  others) 
seems  to  have  given  him  his  position  of  leadership 
1  McGiffert,  "Apostolic  Age,"  p.  47. 


152    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

so  that  he  became,  in  truth,  the  founder  of  the 
Church.1  But  the  Church  which  was  thus  founded 
was  not  built  upon  the  prophetic  Messiahship  of 
Jesus  and  His  prophetic,  aggressive  program,  but 
it  was  based  upon  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus  as  a 
supernatural  Figure  of  one  Who  had  died  and  risen 
again  and  had  been  thereby  "made  Lord  and  Mes- 
siah" and  given  a  seat  on  the  throne  of  God  which 
He  was  to  occupy  till  He  should  return  bringing 
the  Kingdom  with  Him.  In  order  to  secure  a  fav- 
orable place  in  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  the 
Jews  had  only  to  repent  (particularly  of  the  sin 
of  having  crucified  the  Messiah)  and  be  baptized 
in  the  Name  of  Jesus.  With  the  reversion  to  the 
Apocalyptic  eschatology  the  Apostles  abandoned 
the  prophetic  ethic  of  Jesus  and  reverted  to  the 
ethic  of  the  Jewish  legalism  and  ceremonialism. 
This  fact  may  be  readily  discerned  from  the  fol- 
lowing description  of  McGiffert: 

Christianity,  as  they  (the  Apostles)  understood  it, 
was  Judaism  and  nothing  more.  It  was  not  a  substi- 
stute  for  Judaism,  nor  even  an  addition  or  supplement 
to  Judaism;  it  was  not,  indeed,  in  any  way  distinct  from 
the  national  faith.  It  was  simply  the  belief  on  the  part 
of  good  and  faithful  Jews  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah, 
and  it  involved  no  disloyalty  to  Judaism,  and  no  aban- 
donment of  existing  principles.  For  a  Jew  to  believe 
in  the  Messiah  whom  they  preached,  was  not  necessarily 
to  revise  his  conception  of  the  nature  of  the  Messianic 

1  Cf.  Bacon's  Monograph  "Peter,  the  Founder  of  the  Church," 
where  this  idea  is  fully  developed. 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  1 53 

Kingdom  and  of  the  blessings  to  be  enjoyed  within  it, 

nor,  indeed,  of  the  conditions  of  sharing  those  blessings. 

Peter  says  only,  "Repent  and  be  baptized  in  the  Name 

of  Jesus  Christ"  (Acts  II:  38).     Both  here  and  in  III:  19 

where  he  again  exhorts  his  hearers  to  repent,  the  sin 

that  is  apparently  in  his  mind  is  their  crucifixion  of  Jesus. 
1 

He  did  not  put  repentance  in  the  place  of  righteous- 
ness, nor  did  he  suggest  any  revision  of  the  prevailing 
theory  of  righteousness,  making  it  consist  in  something 
else  than  the  observance  of  the  Jewish  law.2 

Baptism  in  the  Name  of  Jesus  Christ  was,  of  course, 
a  new  thing  to  the  Jews  whom  he  addressed ;  but  baptism 
as  such  was  entirely  in  line  with  the  common  Jewish  rites 
of  purification,  and  as  a  symbolical  representation  of 
cleansing  from  sins  of  which  they  repented,  it  must  seem 
the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  to  them.    .    .    .3 

A  fuller  reading  of  McGiffert  only  shows  how 
complete  was  the  reversion  of  the  Apostles  to  Juda- 
ism and  their  abandonment  of  their  Master's  war- 
fare against  the  Jewish  cult.  Peter  (who  had  denied 
allegiance  to  the  Person  of  the  Jesus  Who  was  under 
condemnation  for  His  blasphemy  against  Judaism 
and  Pharisaism) — later  renounced  the  Master's 
Gospel,  while  proclaiming  in  His  name  a  new  Gospel 
of  the  Person  of  Jesus  as  the  one  who  was  to  come 
as  the  futuristic  Inaugurator  of  the  kingdom  of  the 
Jews.  The  prophetic  Universalism  and  moral  war- 
fare for  God  was  completely  abandoned,  so  that 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  58. 

2  Op.  cit.  p.  59. 
« Ibid. 


154    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

both  in  precept  and  practice  the  Apostles  went  over 
to  the  adversaries  of  their  Master — virtually  cru- 
cifying His  doctrine  as  the  leaders  of  the  Jewish 
cult  had  secured  His  physical  crucifixion.  They  are 
left  in  security  by  the  Sanhedrin  and  Pharisees 
join  themselves  to  the  followers  of  their  late  Ad- 
versary and  Victim,1  and  have  a  voice  in  the  affairs 
of  His  Church. 

Thus  the  new  Church  unconsciously  abandoned 
the  Cause  for  which  Jesus  gave  His  life,  and  the 
Apostles  lost  the  prophetic  succession.  In  place  of 
it  arose  by  degrees  the  doctrine  of  the  Apostolic 
Succession  whereby  the  errors  of  Judaism  were 
fastened  upon  the  Church  of  Him  Who  sought  to 
be  their  destroyer. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  how  this  surpris- 
ing change  came  about  without  the  slightest  con- 
sciousness of  disloyalty.  In  the  lifetime  of  their 
Leader  the  Twelve  were  constantly  showing  that 
their  pre-conceived  ideas  about  the  Kingdom  were 
at  variance  with  His.  The  Teacher  was  at  great 
pains  to  show  them  wherein  these  inherited  notions 
were  wrong.  They  were  so  strongly  under  His 
personal  influence  that  they  dared  violate  provi- 
sions of  the  ceremonial  law  with  His  approval. 
But  even  to  the  time  of  His  crucifixion  they  seemed 
to  hold  to  the  politico-eudemonistic  conception  of 
the  Kingdom.  This  is  borne  out  by  their  demoral- 
ization at  the  time  of  the  crucifixion  when  the  blow 
lActs  15:5. 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  155 

fell  upon  them.  After  that  they  were  under  the 
necessity  of  a  reconstruction  of  their  outlook.  It 
was  only  natural  that  this  reconstruction  should 
embody  a  reversion  to  the  main  tenets  of  Judaism. 
Judaism  was  a  racial  cult — or  a  cult  within  a  cult. 
The  plan  of  salvation  for  the  scribes  and  their  dis- 
ciples was  adherence  to  the  law — to  secure  personal 
survival  and  happiness — and  also  to  hasten  the  day 
of  the  Kingdom.  In  Judaism  the  Personal  Mes- 
siah had  receded  into  the  background.  The  Twelve 
now  gave  to  the  Personal  Messiah  the  central  posi- 
tion. It  is  He — the  Risen  crucified  Servant  of  God 
— Who  was  to  bring  in  the  Kingdom  when  men 
should  be  prepared  to  receive  Him.  It  was  per- 
sonal adherence  to  Him — plus  the  righteousness 
of  the  law, — that  was  to  secure  to  those  who  ad- 
hered to  Him — through  baptism  in  His  Name — a 
position  of  security  and  advantage  in  His  Kingdom, 
so  soon  as  it  should  come. 

How  completely  the  immediate  followers  of  Jesus 
in  the  early  days  of  the  Jerusalem  Church  had 
failed  to  grasp  the  prophetic  universalism  of  Jesus 
is  unconsciously  revealed  by  Luke  in  the  book  of 
Acts.  This  is  illustrated  in  the  story  of  the  Roman 
centurion  Cornelius  who  was  a  "proselyte  of  the 
gate."1  According  to  this  account  it  required  two 
visions  and  several  seemingly  miraculous  coinci- 
dences to  convince  Peter  of  the  call  of  the  Gentiles, 
so  that  he  could  say  "I  see  quite  plainly  that  God 
has  no  favorites,  but  that  He  who  reverences  Him 
1  Acts  10. 


156     Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

and  lives  a  good  life  in  any  nation  is  welcomed  by 
him"  (verse  35).  It  required  no  less  than  the  evi- 
dent descent  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  Cornelius  and 
his  Gentile  associates  to  convince  him  that  they 
should  be  baptized  in  the  Name  of  Jesus  (verse  48). 
News  of  this  baptism  of  Gentiles  reached  Jerusalem 
before  Peter's  return  so  that  when  he  came  he  was 
met  by  a  rebuke.  The  author  then  goes  on  to  tell 
that  when  Peter  recited  all  the  circumstances  the 
Judaizers  (or  party  of  the  circumcision)  were  con- 
vinced and  even  rejoiced,  though  their  comment 
has  a  sound  of  amazed  incredulity.  "So  God  has 
actually  allowed  the  Gentiles  to  repent  and  live."1 

II 

But  we  may  trace  another  channel  through  which 
the  Gospel  was  preached  to  the  Gentiles,  reaching 
back  to  Jesus  Himself.  According  to  this,  there 
were  in  the  early  Church  at  Jerusalem  men  of  a  more 
liberal  and  progressive  type  of  religion  than  the 
Twelve,  who  seemed  to  have  held  the  prophetic 
interpretation  of  religion.  I  refer  to  the  Hellenists. 
These  Greek-speaking  Jewish  Christians  are  men- 
tioned in  the  6th  Chapter  of  Acts  as  among  the 
increasing  number  of  disciples.  They  appear  to 
protest  against  the  neglect  of  the  widows  in  the 
distribution  of  food  from  the  common  store.  It  is 
an  interesting  conjecture  that  they  may  have  been 
among  those  who  listened  to  the  preaching  of  Jesus 
Himself.  This  may  be  the  explanation  of  the  al- 
1  Chapter  11:  18,  Moffat's  version. 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  157 

lusion  to  some  "Greeks"  who  had  come  to  worship 
at  the  Festival  at  Jerusalem  and  who  sought  through 
Philip  to  obtain  an  interview  with  Jesus.1  The 
author  refers  to  them  as  "Hellenes,"  but  as  they 
had  come  to  worship  at  the  temple  it  is  far  more 
likely  that  they  were  "Hellenists,"  that  is,  Gre- 
cian-born Jews  rather  than  Greek  proselytes.  The 
author  of  the  Fourth  Gospel  does  not  tell  us  whether 
these  men  ever  succeeded  in  obtaining  their  request. 
But  he  may  have  been  using  a  documentary  source 
which  he  mutilated  in  transcribing. 

The  striking  thing  about  these  Hellenists  is  that 
they  were  concerned  with  the  immediate  needs  of 
the  unfortunate.  In  this  they  seem  to  have  been 
in  contrast  with  the  Twelve  who  seemed  to  feel 
that  the  distribution  of  rations  was  beneath  their 
dignity.  The  seven  Hellenists  who  are  appointed 
to  that  task  accept  it  cheerfully.  Thereby  they 
seem  to  show  a  clearer  appreciation  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  law  of  service;  but  in  addition  to  this 
they  also  found  opportunity  to  preach  the  Gospel, 
and  their  type  of  Gospel  seems  not  to  have  been 
the  Apocalyptic  but  the  prophetic.  In  the  speech 
attributed  to  Stephen  in  the  Acts,  the  long  intro- 
duction is  probably  a  free  composition  by  the  author 
of  the  book.  It  is  the  usual  patriotic  rehearsal  of 
Jewish  history,  but  at  the  end  there  is  a  change  of 
manner.  The  prophetic  note  is  introduced.  Per- 
haps the  author  is  dealing  with  a  special  document, 
or  his  matter  may  have  come  from  Philip — one  of 
1  John  12:  20. 


158    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

the  seven  whom  Luke  met  at  Csesarea.  A  pro- 
phetic fragment  occurs  in  Chapter  7,  verse  42 :  "  Did 
you  offer  me  victims  and  sacrifices  during  the  forty 
years  in  the  desert,  O  house  of  Israel?"  Another 
prophetic  citation  reechoes  the  prophetic  hostility 
against  the  temple.  "And  yet  the  Most  High  does 
not  dwell  in  houses  made  by  hands.  As  the  prophet 
says, 

Heaven  in  my  throne, 

the  earth  is  a  footstool  for  my  feet! 
What  house  would  you  build  me? 

saith  the  Lord. 
On  what  spot  could  I  settle? 
Did  not  my  hand  make  all  this?"1 

He  next  addresses  his  hearers  in  terms  nearly 
akin  to  those  employed  by  Jesus  in  His  denuncia- 
tion of  the  Pharisees.  They  and  their  fathers  have 
always  resisted  the  Spirit,  persecuting  the  Spirit's 
messengers,  the  prophets.  As  the  fathers  have 
slain  the  prophets  so  the  children  of  their  slayers 
have  murdered  the  Just  One. 

In  the  story  of  Philip,  another  of  the  "Seven," 
it  may  not  be  without  significance  that  he  is  repre- 
sented in  his  discourse  with  the  Ethiopian  eunuch 
as  having  interpreted  the  "Suffering  Servant"  of 
Isaiah  as  applied  to  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus.  This, 
as  we  have  seen,  was  the  sense  in  which  Jesus  under- 
stood His  own  Messiahship,  and  contrasts  with  the 
Apocalyptic  Messiah  of  the  Petrine  discourses  in 

1  Acts  7:  49;  Moffat's  version. 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  1 59 

Acts.  That  there  was  a  radical  difference  between 
the  Gospel  of  the  Twelve  and  the  Gospel  of  the  Hel- 
lenists, and  that  the  former  was  reactionary  and 
the  latter  true  to  the  prophetic  message  of  Jesus, 
is  borne  out  by  the  fact  recorded  by  Luke  that  a 
severe  persecution  broke  out  in  Jerusalem  against 
the  adherents  of  Stephen  (who  was  himself  the  first 
martyr) ,  and  resulted  in  their  being  scattered  abroad 
whereas  the  Apostles  were  left  unmolested  by  the 
authorities. 

It  was  this  Hellenistic  or  liberal  Christianity 
which  Philip  preached  among  the  Samaritans. 
Others  carried  their  Gospel  as  far  as  Phoenicia  and 
Cyprus  and  Antioch,  as  we  are  told  in  the  nth 
Chapter  of  Acts.  At  Antioch  some  of  them  desig- 
nated as  " Cypriotes"  and  "Cyrenians"  began  to 
preach  the  Gospel  to  the  Greeks  also.1  It  was  at 
Antioch  that  the  adherents  of  this  movement  were 
called  "Christians."  Hitherto  they  had  been  re- 
garded as  "Nazarenes"  or  a  sect  of  Jews.  It  was 
to  the  Christian  Church  in  Antioch  that  Paul  (Saul) 
was  brought  by  Barnabas  and  remained  as  a  guest 
for  a  year.  Here  he  was  in  the  midst  of  liberalized 
Hellenistic  Christians,  and  perhaps  their  influence 
upon  his  Gospel,  in  the  trend  toward  universalism, 
was  far  greater  than  he  himself,  or  the  students  of 
Paulinism,  have  realized.  In  the  local  Church  at 
Antioch  the  religious  leaders  or  ministers  were 
known  as  "prophets  and  teachers."  This  may  be 
also  significant  of  their  appreciation  of  the  pro- 
1  See  Moffat's  version,  footnote,  p.  161. 


160    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

phetic  type  of  religion.  It  was  from  them  that  Paul 
and  Barnabas  received  their  commission  to  go  forth, 
preaching  the  Gospel  of  the  Kingdom  to  Jew  and 
Gentile  alike.  They  thus  became  Apostles,  liter- 
ally, "men  who  are  sent  forth."  Their  commission 
was  accompanied  by  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of 
hands.  This  latter  practice  seems  to  have  accom- 
panied special  acts  of  intercession  as  in  the  other 
practice  of  the  laying  on  of  hands  upon  the  sick.1 
It  appears  to  have  been  so  incidental  an  occurrence 
in  the  mind  of  Paul  that  he  nowhere  refers  to  it  in 
his  extant  writings.  It  was  an  old  Jewish  custom 
for  the  purpose  of  localizing  prayer  upon  those  for 
whom  it  was  offered. 

It  has  sometimes  been  said  by  admirers  of  Paul 
that  had  it  not  been  for  his  universalism  the  move- 
ment inaugurated  by  Jesus  would  have  remained 
a  sect  of  Judaism  with  possibly  a  very  brief  history. 
An  appreciation  of  the  movement  of  Hellenistic 
Christianity  as  exhibited  at  Antioch  will  show  that 
this  claim  on  behalf  of  Paul  is  exaggerated. 

Ill 

In  contrast  with  the  "Judaizing  Christians" — 
which  included  James  the  brother  of  the  Lord  and 
the  Twelve,  Paul's  Gospel  is  progressive  and  ex- 
pansive. It  contained  elements  antagonistic  to  the 
Jewish  narrow  particularism.  Its  influence  has 
been  enduring  and  has  been  on  the  side  of  the  great 
reformatory  movements  in  the  Christian  Church, 

1Mk.  16:  18. 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  161 

but  all  such  movements,  including  the  so-called  Re- 
formation itself,  have  stopped  short  of  the  prophetic 
Christian  reform.  At  the  present  time  the  prophetic 
movement  among  Christian  thinkers  feels  the  need 
of  going  behind  Paulinism  to  the  doctrine  of  Jesus 
Himself.  Compared  with  the  Gospel  of  Jesus,  as 
recovered  by  modern  historical  and  critical  methods, 
the  Gospel  of  Paul  is  inadequate.  It  is  impossible 
to  regard  him  as  the  leader  of  the  present  forward 
movement  of  social  Christianity. 

The  religious  movement  of  the  Judaizing  Chris- 
tians was  that  of  a  narrow  cult,  restricted  to  men  of 
Jewish  birth  or  proselytes,  who  in  addition  to  the 
practice  of  Judaism  accepted  Jesus  as  the  Messiah 
Who  was  to  come.  In  contrast  to  this  Paul's  ad- 
mission of  the  Gentiles  to  membership  in  the  cult, 
his  break  with  and  rejection  of  legalism,  and  his 
claim  to  a  call  to  service  directly  from  God  and 
independently  of  human  mediators  (the  Apostles), 
makes  him,  by  comparison,  a  man  of  "  prophetic 
tendencies."  But  in  contrast  to  the  theology  and 
ethical  universalism  of  Jesus,  he  remains  a  conserv- 
ative and  a  reactionary.  It  is  as  such  that  his 
influence  is  reckoned  to-day  among  the  true  leaders 
of  modern  Christianity,  those  whose  watchword 
is  "  Back  to  Christ."  The  chief  indictment  against 
him  is  that,  in  spite  of  his  acceptance  of  the  Gentiles, 
his  religion  remains  that  of  a  cult.  His  early  rab- 
binism  with  its  doctrine  of  predestination  has  a 
stronger  determining  influence  upon  his  thought 
than  has  the  prophetic  literature  of  his  race  and  the 


1 62    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

prophetic  career  of  his  Master.  He  frankly  lacks 
an  appreciation  of  the  historic  Jesus  as  a  Prophet 
and  Teacher,  and  though  emphasizing  it  less  than 
the  Twelve,  he  still  gives  his  adherence  to  the  Apoc- 
alyptic scheme  of  salvation.  He  abandons  the 
prophetic  Messianic  conception  of  a  universal, 
redeemed  community  co-extensive  with  mankind 
and  living  a  normal  life  here  upon  the  earth.  In 
place  of  this  his  eschatology  is  burdened  with  "  other- 
worldliness." 

In  place  of  the  historic  Jesus  he  gives  his  alle- 
giance to  the  Man  from  Heaven  Whom  he  seems  to 
identify  in  his  thought  with  the  "  Spirit.' '  Sal- 
vation remains  an  object  of  quest  for  the  individual 
in  contrast  to  the  injunction  of  Jesus  to  desist  from 
seeking  a  separate  individual  salvation  and  in  place 
of  it  to  devote  one's  life  to  establishing  the  universal 
community  of  the  saved.  Within  the  cult  he  pre- 
sents a  beautiful  ideal  of  loving  social  relationship. 
The  members  of  the  cult  are  members  of  each  other 
because  they  are  all  members  of  the  Body  of  Christ. 
His  doctrine  of  the  Church  was  broad  in  relation 
to  Judaism  and  narrow  in  comparison  with  the 
prophetic  universalism.  In  fact  we  may  charac- 
terize Paul  as  the  New  Testament  Ezekiel.  His 
immediate  success  was  due  to  the  fact  of  his  syn- 
thesizing elements  derived  from  different  contem- 
porary movements,  but  this  fact  will  also  militate 
against  the  permanence  of  his  movement,  especially 
in  the  future. 

Certain  modern  writers,  among  them  especially 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  163 

Percy  Gardner  (in  his  "Religious  Experience  of 
St.  Paul")  have  pointed  out  the  fact  that  St.  Paul's 
religion  was  modeled  on  the  pattern  of  the  contem- 
porary "Mystery  Cults." 

In  the  Graeco-Roman  world  including  the  Near 
East  at  the  beginning  of  our  era  there  was  a  depressed 
and  pessimistic  outlook  upon  the  destiny  of  man- 
kind taken  as  whole.  Humanity  was  seen  as  strug- 
gling against  a  threatening  and  adverse  fate.  This 
was  the  pessimistic  ground-thought  of  the  Apoca- 
lypses. Paul's  view  that  all  men  rested  under  the 
curse  inherited  from  the  first  ancestor  of  the  race 
found  its  echo  in  the  prevalent  philosophy.  Jesus' 
doctrine  of  the  value  of  the  individual  man  and  of 
the  Fatherhood  of  God  and  His  belief  in  the  nearness 
of  the  Kingdom  was  in  marked  contrast  to  the  mood 
of  mankind  in  His  day.  The  Church  accepted  the 
current  assumption  that  mankind  was  inevitably 
lost  without  some  kind  of  miraculous  intervention. 
The  Church  itself  professed  to  hold  the  secret  of 
deliverance.  In  this  it  found  itself  in  harmony  with 
the  program  of  the  Mystery  Cults,  many  of  which 
were  its  contemporaries.1  The  Mysteries  have 
three  notable  characteristics: 

First,  all  have  some  rites  of  purification,  whether  cere- 
monial or  moral,  through  which  the  Mystae  have  to  pass. 
Second,  They  are  all  mysteries  of  communion  with  some 
deity,  who  through  them  comes  into  relation  with  his 

1  Among  these  Mysteries  we  may  enumerate  those  of  Tammuz, 
Attis,  Isis,  Mithras,  Sandan,  Sabazius,  Cybele,  Orpheus,  and 
Demeter  and  Persephone. 
13 


164    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

votaries.  Third,  all  extend  their  views  beyond  the  pres- 
ent life  to  that  which  is  to  come,  and  secure  for  the  ini- 
tiated a  happy  reception  in  the  world  which  lies  beyond 
the  grave.1 

In  the  mysteries  of  Cybele  the  initiate  enacts  a 
ritualistic  drama  in  which  he  symbolically  shares 
the  fate  of  Persephone  in  going  to  the  under  world 
after  which  he  enjoys  a  symbolic  return  to  life  in  a 
figurative  resurrection  to  the  life  of  the  upper  world. 
This  is  somewhat  analogous  to  St.  Paul's  concep- 
tion of  baptism  whereby  the  immersion  in  the  water 
symbolizes  burial  with  Christ  and  the  emergence 
from  the  water  the  resurrection  into  a  new  life. 
The  same  idea  is  enacted  on  a  larger  scale  in  the  sor- 
rowing and  fasting  observance  of  Good  Friday  and 
the  joyous  Feast  of  Easter.  The  thought  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  Collect  for  Easter  Even. 

Because  the  earlier  Christians  could  point  to  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  as  a  recent  well- 
attested  historic  fact,  the  thought  of  union  with 
Him  whether  by  faith  or  by  the  sacrament  was  most 
adaptable  to  the  soteriological  plan  of  the  Mystery 
Cults,  which  promised  to  their  adherents  the  priv- 
ilege of  reenacting  in  their  own  lives  the  experience 
of  the  Mystery  god.  Because  it  satisfied  most  ade- 
quately the  felt  longings  of  the  men  of  the  Roman 
Empire  the  Christian  Church  as  a  mystic  society 
soon  triumphed  over  all  its  rivals.  But  in  thus 
constituting  itself  a  mystery  religion  Christianity 

1  Percy  Gardner,  "The  Religious  Experience  of  St.  Paul," 
p.  69. 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  165 

was  departing  from  the  program  of  its  Founder. 
In  contrast  to  His  preaching  which  laid  but  little 
emphasis  upon  His  own  Person  and  laid  the  most 
emphatic  stress  upon  His  teaching  about  the  King- 
dom, the  Church  laid  but  little  emphasis  upon  His 
teaching  and  laid  an  almost  exclusive  stress  upon 
His  Person  and  Office  as  a  redeeming  God. 

It  is  clear  that  Jesus  in  condemning  the  cult  of 
the  Pharisees  and  the  temple  cult  condemned  the 
underlying  cult  principle,  and  it  is  certain  that  He 
never  intended  to  found  a  new  cult  with  Himself  as 
the  center.  In  fact,  He  seems  to  warn  against  that 
as  a  danger.1  In  spite  of  this  warning  all  His  earlier 
followers,  with  the  possible  exception  of  a  few  Hel- 
lenists, ran  into  the  very  danger,  and  so  the  pre- 
diction of  Jesus  has  already  been  fulfilled,  "Many 
will  say  to  me  in  that  day,  'Lord,  Lord,  did  we  not 
prophesy  in  your  name?  Did  we  not  cast  out  de- 
mons in  your  name?  Did  we  not  perform  many 
miracles  in  your  name?'  "  To  whom  His  Spirit 
declares,  "I  never  knew  you;  depart  from  my  pres- 
ence, you  workers  of  iniquity."  This  testimony 
is  confirmed  by  the  testimony  of  three  careful  schol- 
ars, Professors  Harnack,  Lake  and  Hatch.2 

In  spite  of  his  great  services  the  influence  of  Paul, 
like  that  of  Ezekiel,  remains  on  the  side  of  those 
who  restrict  religion  to  a  community  less  than  the 
total  brotherhood  of  man.  This  restriction  of  the 
community  to  a  cult  is  fatal,  no  matter  how  beauti- 

1  Mt.  7:  21-23. 

2  "With  regard  to  the  way  in  which  He  worked  and  gathered 


1 66    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

ful  the  community  life  of  the  cult  may  be.  Paul's 
conception  of  the  Church  leaves  nothing  to  be  de- 
sired in  respect  of  the  relation  of  its  members  to 
God  and  to  each  other.  Josiah  Royce  in  his  "  Prob- 
lem of  Christianity"  has  taken  the  Pauline  concep- 
tion and  made  it  fundamental  in  his  development 
of  the  idea  of  the  "Beloved  Community."  Royce 
feels  that  in  regard  to  this  teaching  Paul  made  a 
more  important  contribution  to  Christian  thought 
than  any  that  is  found  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
Royce  plainly  never  had  a  clear  conception  of  the 
thought  of  the  Founder  of  Christianity  or  he  would 
have  seen  that  in  Jesus'  preaching  of  the  Reign  of 
God  every  element  that  he  admires  in  the  Pauline 
idea  of  the  Church  is  present  and  that  besides, 
whereas  Paul's  "Church"  remains  restricted  to 
the  elect  who  are  to  be  rescued  out  of  the  present 
world,  Jesus  regards  the  Community  as  universal, 
as  all-inclusive,  embracing  the  life  in  time  as  well 
as  in  eternity. 

disciples,  the  distinctiveness  of  His  Person  and  preaching  comes 
out  very  clearly.  He  sought  to  found  no  sect  or  school.  He 
laid  down  no  outward  rules  for  adhesion  to  Himself.  His  aim 
was  to  bring  men  to  God  and  to  prepare  them  for  God's  King- 
dom." (Harnack,  "Mission  and  Expansion  of  Christianity," 
vol.  I,  p.  37-) 

"Jesus  did  not  say  that  only  those  who  followed  Him  would 
be  admitted  (to  the  Kingdom  of  God)  and  He  did  not  deny  the 
existence  of  righteous  in  Israel  who  needed  no  physician.  The 
claim  to  have  exclusive  right  of  entry  into  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven 
— the  essence  of  ecclesiasticism  in  the  bad  sense  of  the  word — 
was  perhaps  made  by  the  scribes,  or  at  least  by  some  of  them, 
but   not  by  Jesus,  though  Christians  have  in  this  respect  not 


Followers  of  Jesus  Create  a  Cult  167 

IV 

It  is  of  the  nature  of  the  cult  that  it  should  be 
chiefly  occupied  with  the  person  of  the  redeeming 
God  and  with  the  question  of  how  saving  relations 
with  Him  may  be  won  and  maintained.  The  de- 
velopment of  the  cult  assures  an  absorption  in 
Christological  speculation.  The  loyal  devotees  of 
the  cult-God  will  devote  themselves  to  the  exten- 
sion of  His  claims  to  power  and  exaltation.  The 
next  step  in  the  strengthening  of  the  cult  idea  is 
found  in  the  Fourth  Gospel. 

The  Church  at  Ephesus  produced  this  Gospel 
which  is  the  Gospel  of  the  cult  par  excellence.  It 
is  at  once  a  mystic  Gospel  and  a  mystery  religion. 
The  portrait  of  Jesus,  while  employing  historic 
materials,  is  composed  on  the  superhistorical  as- 
sumption that  Jesus,  the  cult-God,  existed  from 
eternity,  was  the  Agent  of  God  in  creation,  the 
Source  of  all  light  and  enlightenment,   and   that 

always  followed  His  example. "     (Lake,  "Stewardship  of  Faith," 

P-  33.) 

"He  never  asked  His  disciples  to  trust  in  Himself  rather  than 
in  God;  nor  did  He  demand  of  them  faith  in  His  Own  Person, 
though  He  felt  He  had  been  divinely  appointed  to  proclaim  the 
coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  and  to  prepare  men  for  it.  He 
fully  believed  that  He  was  the  Messiah  but  He  did  not  make 
forgiveness  or  salvation  dependent  upon  belief  in  His  Messiah- 
ship.  It  was  enough  for  Him  if  He  could  persuade  men  to  re- 
pent of  their  sins,  to  bring  forth  the  fruits  of  righteousness,  and 
to  live  in  trust  toward  their  Heavenly  Father,  looking  forward 
expectantly  to  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom."  (\Y.  H.  P.  Hatch, 
"The  Pauline  Idea  of  Faith,"  pp.  24-25,  cf.  also,  p.  22.) 


1 68    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

He  came  into  the  world  in  order  that  those  who  had 
the  insight  to  accept  Him  might  receive  from  Him 
the  right  of  being  children  of  God.  This  concep- 
tion is  based  on  the  theology  which  falls  short  of 
the  universalism  of  Jesus,  and  it  places  an  inter- 
pretation upon  His  Mission  and  Person  which  He 
Himself  would  not  have  recognized. 

In  thus  turning  the  stream  of  Christianity  into  the 
channels  of  a  mystery  cult,  Paul  and  the  author  or 
authors  of  the  Ephesian  Gospel  were  quite  uncon- 
sciously taking  the  first  step  in  the  development 
which  soon  transformed  the  free  emancipating 
universalistic  Gospel  of  God  and  humanity  into  an 
exploiting  ecclesiasticism,  the  most  stupendous  in 
the  history  of  the  world,  the  corrupting  influence 
of  which  survives  to  the  present  time. 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism   169 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   CULT   BECOMES   AN    EXPLOITING 
ECCLESIASTICISM 

Hitherto  we  have  been  discussing  the  theological 
ideas  which  led  the  followers  of  Jesus  to  regard 
themselves  as  a  cult.  We  are  now  to  consider  the 
manner  in  which  the  cult  became  organized  exter- 
nally. The  Church  in  Jerusalem  under  the  leader- 
ship of  the  Apostles  adopted  a  form  of  communism. 
It  was  not  a  communism  of  productive  co-operation 
but  a  communism  of  "consumption."  The  ad- 
herents converted  their  land  and  capital  into  ready 
cash  which  was  used  to  buy  provisions  for  all  the 
members  of  the  community.  The  Parousia  was 
believed  to  be  so  near  that  the  Lord's  appearance 
was  counted  on  before  the  common  store  should 
have  been  entirely  used.  As  we  have  already  seen 
the  distribution  was  at  first  badly  organized  so  that 
weaker  members  of  the  community  suffered.  It 
was  to  remedy  this  abuse  that  the  "Seven"  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  have  the  matter  in  charge. 

The  Seven  were  soon  scattered  by  persecution. 
As  might  be  expected,  the  community  was  soon  re- 
duced to  poverty  owing  to  its  miscalculations. 
When  Paul  visited  the  Church  in  Jerusalem  in  order 
to  win  its  approval  of  his  mission  to  the  Gentiles, 
the  Apostles,  in  giving  him  the  right  hand  of  fellow- 
ship, asked  him  to  confine  his  ministrations  to  the 


170    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Gentiles,  and  added  a  request  that  he  should  "re- 
member the  poor,"  that  is  to  say,  that  he  should 
send  contributions  to  the  impoverished  Church  in 
Jerusalem.  This  request  he  diligently  observed. 
At  this  time  the  Apostles  did  not  compel  Titus,  a 
Greek  who  accompanied  Paul,  to  submit  to  cir- 
cumcision. But  the  Judaizers  did  not  abide  by 
what  Paul  considered  their  agreement  to  a  division 
of  the  field.  Hence  his  indignation  when  he  dis- 
covered that  the  Jerusalem  Church  was  sending  out 
emissaries  who  were  attempting  to  make  Jewish 
proselytes  of  his  Gentile  converts.  The  Judaizers 
evidently  did  not  consider  the  Pauline  Christians  as 
possessing  a  " regular"  standing.  How  did  Paul 
regard  the  Judaizers?  He  rejected  their  claims  to 
authority  to  impose  their  standards  upon  his  ad- 
herents. But  he  still  regarded  them  as  members  of 
the  Christian  community,  of  the  "Body  of  Christ," 
and  therefore  he  sought  to  discharge  toward  them 
the  duties  of  brotherly  assistance  and  to  win  their 
recognition  and  hold  it.  These  two  motives  united 
in  imparting  diligence  to  his  campaign  for  raising 
what  must  have  been  a  large  offering  which  he  took 
to  them  in  person.  His  Epistles  contain  several 
allusions  to  this  contribution. 

In  sending  out  the  Twelve  Jesus  had  restricted 
them  to  the  acceptance  of  hospitality,  had  warned 
them  against  accepting  money.  But  now,  instead 
of  seeking  to  be  self-supporting,  the  Apostles  be- 
came dependent  upon  the  contributions  of  the 
Church  at  large,  especially  upon  the  generosity  of 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism  171 

the  Gentile  Churches.  In  writing  to  the  Corin- 
thians Paul  suggests  that  they  adopt  the  arrange- 
ment which  he  has  already  made  for  the  Churches 
at  Galatia.  They  are  to  take  a  weekly  offering 
from  every  one  of  the  members  of  the  community. 
When  the  sum  has  become  sufficiently  large  a  com- 
mittee with  proper  credentials  is  to  take  the  sum  to 
Jerusalem,  and  he  suggests  that  if  it  is  large  enough 
he  himself  will  accompany  them.1  In  his  letter  to 
the  Romans  he  tells  them  that  he  is  about  to  leave 
for  Jerusalem  on  an  errand  to  the  "  saints,"  which 
is  to  carry  the  contribution  from  the  Churches  in 
Macedonia  and  Achaia.  He  represents  these  of- 
ferings as  a  debt  which  the  Gentiles  owe  to  the 
Jewish  Church  because  of  the  spiritual  benefit 
which  that  Church  has  mediated  to  them.  It 
would  now  seem  as  though  the  Jerusalem  Church 
were  perilously  near  exploiting  the  Gospel,  although 
the  contributions  were  not  levied  but  were  wholly 
voluntary.  At  any  rate,  we  have  the  beginnings  of 
a  clerical  caste  subsisting  on  the  offerings  of  the 
laity  who  work  for  their  living. 

I 
In  the  Gentile  Churches  the  ministers  of  the  con- 
gregation were  at  first  self-supporting.  Paul  ac- 
cepted the  hospitality  of  the  Churches,  among  whom 
he  made  a  short  stay,  but  in  Ephesus  when'  lu- 
stayed  for  two  years,  he  supported  himself  by  w<  >i  k- 
ing  at  his  trade  of  tent-making  and  earned  enough 
* 1  Cor.  16: 1-4. 


172    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

to  assist  his  fellow  ministers.1  In  the  organization 
of  the  Gentile  Churches  the  ministry  was  not  paid, 
— all  of  the  offerings  were  taken  for  the  poor  of  the 
local  congregation  and  the  share  which  was  sent  to 
Jerusalem.  The  organization  of  the  ministry  was 
"charismatic,"  that  is  to  say,  those  who  ministered 
to  the  local  churches  or  to  the  Church  at  large  re- 
ceived their  appointment  by  reason  of  recognized 
qualifications  derived  by  charismatic  gifts  com- 
municated by  the  Spirit.  Paul  enumerates  these 
charismatic  officers  as  first  " Apostles, "  that  is, 
those  who  were  sent  out  as  missionaries ;  secondly, 
"Prophets,"  these  seem  to  have  been  local  minis- 
ters in  Antioch  but  they  also  belonged  to  the  "itin- 
erant ministry";  thirdly,  "Teachers,"  of  whom  the 
same  may  be  said.  In  addition  to  these,  there 
were  the  following  local  ministers:  "Healers," 
"Helpers,"  "Administrators,"  and  "Speakers  in 
tongues."2 

The  "administrators"  were  those  who  in  the 
pastoral  Epistles  are  designated  as  "Bishops,"  that 
is,  "overseers,"  and  the  "helpers,"  those  who  are 
called  "deacons,"  that  is  "servants,"  who  assisted 
the  Bishops  in  the  distribution  of  the  offerings  to  the 
poor.  In  the  pastoral  Epistles,  which  were  proba- 
bly written  near  the  end  of  the  first  century,  special 
stress  is  laid  upon  the  importance  of  the  character 
of  these  men  who  had  the  handling  of  the  funds  of 
the  community.     They  must  not  be  polygamists, 

^cts  20: 34. 
2  I  Cor.  12:28. 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism   173 

or  excessive  drinkers,  or  avaricious,  or  "pilferers."1 
In  the  Didache  or  "Teaching  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
tles," which  is  perhaps  not  more  than  a  decade 
later  in  date  than  the  pastoral  Epistles,  we  have  a 
picture  of  the  existing  simple  order  of  the  Church. 
The  itinerant  ministry  is  given  the  first  position  of 
honor,  but  many  restrictions  are  placed  upon  those 
who  might  enter  the  community  claiming  to  be 
Apostles  and  Prophets.  The  bishop  is  appointed 
by  the  congregation  and  in  addition  to  administer- 
ing the  poor  fund  he  also  presides  at  the  Eucharist 
in  the  absence  of  one  of  the  itinerant  ministers. 
He  is,  however,  restricted  to  the  use  of  simple  litur- 
gical prayers,  whereas  the  prophet  is  allowed  to 
"pray  as  much  as  he  will." 

It  is  apparent  that  many  impostors  and  exploiters 
must  have  foisted  themselves  upon  unsuspecting 
local  churches,  because  of  the  minute  instructions 
given  whereby  the  true  may  be  distinguished  from 
the  false.  The  visiting  Apostle,  till  proved  guilty, 
is  to  be  received  "as  the  Lord,"  but  if  he  stays  and 
attempts  to  live  on  the  community  longer  than 
two  days  his  claims  are  fraudulent,  he  is  a  "false 
prophet. ' '  He  is  an  exploiter  if  he  asks  for  money  or 
"orders  a  meal."  In  any  case,  when  he  leaves  he 
is  not  to  take  anything  with  him  beyond  sufficient 
bread  to  last  until  he  reaches  the  next  local  church. 
This  provision  sees  to  it  that  the  itinerant  minister 
carries  out  the  instructions  which  Jesus  gave  the 
Twelve  in  sending  them  out  on  their  preaching 
!l  Tim.  3;  Titus,  I. 


174    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

mission.  In  Chapter  13,  however,  seemingly  later 
provisions  are  introduced.  They  seem  to  have 
been  incorporated  in  the  interests  of  the  prophetic 
ministry.  In  them  it  is  provided  that  the  prophets 
and  teachers  may  settle  permanently  in  the  com- 
munity. Their  support  is  also  liberally  provided 
for  and  so  the  way  is  paved  for  the  rise  of  a  caste  of 
professional  ministers  depending  upon  the  offerings 
of  the  congregation  hitherto  intended  for  the  use  of 
the  poor.  "Every  first  fruit,  then,  of  the  products 
of  the  wine  press  and  threshing  floor,  of  oxen  and 
sheep,  thou  shalt  take  and  give  to  the  prophet,  for 
they  are  your  High  Priests."  "If  thou  makest  a 
baking  of  bread,  take  the  first  of  it  and  give  accord- 
ing to  the  commandment.  In  like  manner  when 
thou  openest  a  jar  of  wine  or  oil,  take  the  first  of  it 
and  give  to  the  prophet;  and  of  money  and  cloth- 
ing and  every  possession,  take  the  first,  as  seems 
right  to  thee,  and  give  according  to  the  command- 
ment." The  "prophets"  evidently  expect  to  live 
well.  Their  claims  are  put  before  those  of  the  poor, 
as  is  implied  by  the  statement  "But  if  ye  have  no 
prophets,  give  it  to  the  poor."  It  was  perhaps 
owing  to  a  deterioration  in  the  character  of  the 
itinerant  ministry  and  the  restrictions  which  were 
placed  upon  its  members  in  consequence,  that  the 
disappearance  of  the  itinerant  ministry  claiming 
charismatic  or  prophetic  gifts  became  inevitable, 
and  the  ascendency  of  a  local  administrative  organ- 
ization, consisting  of  teachers,  shepherds,  bishops 
and  deacons,  became  officially  established. 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism   175 

The  "elders"  do  not  appear  as  a  clerical  caste 
till  the  next  period  of  development.  This  title,  as 
Sohm  and  Lowrie  have  pointed  out,  was  a  title  of 
age  rather  than  of  office.  In  the  Jewish  Church, 
however,  the  older  men  of  exemplary  character 
were  recognized  as  holding  positions  of  judicial,  or 
at  least  of  advisory  weight.  Their  importance  is 
recognized  in  frequent  Old  Testament  references.1 
It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  bishops  were  selected 
from  their  number. 

II 

In  the  next  period  of  development  the  "oligar- 
chical" or  many-headed  voluntary  group  of  elders 
or  bishops,  which  was  self-supporting  and  which 
gave  its  services  freely,  became  a  local  hierarchy  of 
three  steps  with  a  single  local  bishop  at  the  head. 
An  element  which  contributed  to  the  strength  and 
rigidity  of  the  official  organization  grew  out  of  the 
felt  need  to  deal  with  the  divisive  and  schismatic 
tendencies  which  arose  from  the  freedom  of  the 
charismatic  organization  permitting  as  it  did  the 
rise  within  the  group  of  "heresies" — the  literal 
meaning  of  which  is  "differences  of  opinion." 

The  seriousness  of  these  differences  of  opinion 
was  that  they  led  to  divisions  and  hostilities  within 
the  community,  and  the  method  taken  to  combat 
them  was  not  that  of  friendly  discussion  and  recip- 
rocal education,  but  the  less  Christlike  method  of 
mutual  recrimination  and  finally  of  judicial  con- 
ic g.  in  Lev.  4:  15;  Deut.  29:  10;  31:28;  32:7;  I  Sam.  30:26. 


176    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

demnation  of  views  not  acceptable  to  the  ascendant 
parties  who  were  able  to  impose  penalties,  the  chief 
of  which  was  excommunication.  We  know  of  St. 
Paul's  conflict  with  the  Judaizers.  Many  of  these 
rejected  his  claim  to  the  Apostleship.  Paul  sought 
to  safeguard  against  their  disturbing  influence  by 
warning  his  churches,  as  in  his  address  to  the  pres- 
byters at  Ephesus,1  that  "grievous  wolves  would 
get  in  among  them  and  not  spare  the  flock."  The 
Jewish  Christians  perpetuated  their  controversy 
against  Paulinism  in  the  so-called  "Clementine 
Homilies"  which  plainly  reject  Paul's  claims  to 
Apostleship  and  take  him  to  task  for  his  criticisms 
of  Peter  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Galatians.  The  Jew- 
ish Church  was  ultimately  excommunicated  by  the 
Gentile  Catholic  Church.  It  continued  its  exist- 
ence under  the  Patriarch  of  Jerusalem  till  the  fourth 
century.  It  perpetuated  the  Apocalyptic  concep- 
tion of  Jesus  as  the  Christus  futurus .  They  rejected 
all  the  later  Christologies,  so  that  in  time  its  con- 
servatism placed  it  in  the  class  of  heretics  from 
the  point  of  view  of  the  later  established  orthodoxy. 
In  his  advocacy  of  a  rigid  organization  of  the 
local  church  under  a  monarchical  episcopate,  Igna- 
tius, who  was  the  religious  enthusiast  of  this  change, 
had  in  mind  efficiency  of  management,  especially  in 
dealing  with  the  schismatics.  The  final  test  of  the 
permanence  of  this  organization  was  made  in  the 
conflict  with  Montanism.  Montanism  was  a  Gen- 
tile revival  of  the  early  Apocalyptic  expectation  of 
1  Acts  20:  17  ff. 


CultJBecomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism   177 

the  imminent  coming  of  Christ  upon  the  clouds. 
The  Church  had  by  its  organization  begun  to  pro- 
vide for  its  future  continuance  on  earth  as  a  per- 
manent institution.  Its  adherents  had  regard  for 
its  material  interests  and  for  extending  its  influence. 
To  the  Montanists  all  this  seemed  futile  in  view  of 
the  destruction  of  the  existing  world  order  which 
they  so  soon  expected.  They  condemned  the 
"worldliness"  of  the  growing  cult  and  rejected  its 
official  ministry,  claiming  to  possess  a  charismatic 
ministry  and  prophetic  succession  of  their  own. 
With  their  downfall  the  organization  of  the  Catholic 
Church  was  assured  on  a  permanent  basis.  The 
significance  of  this  fact,  it  was  the  service  of  Ritschl 
to  have  pointed  out. 

Ill 

From  the  time  of  Ignatius  on  we  find  marks  of 
a  growing  " clerical  consciousness."  Ignatius  him- 
self the  bishop  of  Antioch  is  not  restrained  by  any 
false  modesty  in  exalting  the  position  of  the  bishop 
of  the  local  church  to  one  of  equivalence  to  the 
office  of  Christ,  as  a  vicar  of  God.  The  presbyters 
he  regards  as  the  successors  of  the  Apostles.  To 
the  church  at  Smyrna  he  writes:  "See  that  ye 
follow  the  bishop,  even  as  Jesus  Christ  does  the 
Father,  and  the  presbytery  as  ye  would  the  Apos- 
tles, and  reverence  the  deacons  as  being  the  insti- 
tution of  God."1     Here  we  have  a  clear-cut  class 

*Ad.  Smyr.  C.  VIII  and  XII— Quoted  by  Dr.  Allen,  "Christian 
Institutions,"  p.  62. 


178    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

consciousness,  not  merely  of  the  distinction  be- 
tween the  clerical  and  the  lay,  but  also  of  the  class 
division  within  the  clerical  order  into  higher  and 
inferior  clergy.  All  this  seems  to  indicate  the  influ- 
ence of  the  Roman  bureaucracy  and  complicated 
class  division. 

The  idea  was  emphasized  by  the  Church  archi- 
tecture and  in  the  forms  of  worship.  There  was 
the  bishop's  throne ;  the  officiating  presbyter  stood 
on  the  top  step  of  the  Altar,  and  the  deacons  on 
the  step  below.  Each  order  had  its  especial  vest- 
ments, their  splendor  corresponding  to  the  rank  of 
the  privileged  wearer. 

By  this  time  the  clergy  received  an  income,  partly 
in  kind  (a  portion  of  that  which  had  formerly  been 
given  to  the  poor) ,  and  also  presents  in  money.  The 
church  life  had  become  so  elaborated  that  all  the  time 
of  the  clergy  was  required  and  no  opportunity  left 
them  to  support  themselves  as  had  been  the  custom  of 
the  earlier  time.  In  fact,  it  was  now  considered 
beneath  the  dignity  of  the  ministry  to  earn  their 
own  livings  by  productive  labor.  That  which  St. 
Paul  had  commended  in  himself,  namely,  his  self- 
support,  by  his  own  hands,  is  now  considered 
reprehensible.  "Worldly  callings"  were  condemned 
as  incompatible  with  the  highest  devotion  to  the 
service  of  God  in  the  church.  The  growing  influ- 
ence of  the  clergy  offered  multiplied  opportunities 
for  exploitation  which  logically  enough  developed  a 
tendency  toward  corruption. 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism  179 

IV 

As  the  cult  grew  in  influence  and  importance  and 
as  the  clerical  body  increased  its  influence,  it  offered 
such  opportunities  for  a  brilliant  career  that  men  of 
ability  and  ambition  were  tempted  to  enter  the 
field.  These  men  by  their  gifts  of  organization  were 
able  to  still  further  strengthen  the  power  and  pres- 
tige of  the  Church  and  its  ruling  orders.  In  select- 
ing their  bishops  it  became  a  principle  to  choose  "a 
man  of  weight  in  the  community,"  so  that  men  of 
wealth  and  members  of  the  nobility  came  to  have  a 
prior  claim  upon  the  episcopal  office.  The  local 
bishop  became  elevated  to  preside  over  the  diocese. 

Episcopal  prestige  owes  a  permanent  debt  to 
Cyprian.  Before  becoming  a  bishop  himself  Cyp- 
rian had  been  a  successful  Roman  lawyer.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  upper  class  and  a  man  of  wealth 
either  by  inheritance  or  as  the  result  of  a  successful 
legal  practice.  It  may  be  said  without  exaggera- 
tion that  Cyprian  accomplished  more  toward  the 
separation  of  the  church  from  the  mind  and  pro- 
gram of  Jesus  than  any  of  his  predecessors,  for  he 
was  a  most  efficient  agent  in  binding  the  Body  of 
Christ  by  the  fetters  of  a  rigid  ecclesiasticism  and 
handing  it  over  to  that  very  hierarchical  system 
which  the  prophets  and  Jesus  had  given  their  lives 
to  combat.  Yet  he  was  not  conscious  of  any  in- 
consistency or  disloyalty,  for  he  was  only  conscious 
of  loyal  adherence  to  the  Christian  cult.  That 
cult  had  already  grown  so  far  away  from  the  basic 
14 


180    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

principles  of  Christ  that  it  was  possible  to  be  a  good 
Catholic  and  a  false  Christian  (i.e.  not  a  " Chris- 
tian" used  in  the  sense  of  a  true  adherent  of  the 
doctrine  of  Jesus),  without  being  conscious  of  the 
inconsistency. 

It  was  perhaps  natural  that  Cyprian  should  fail 
to  recognize  that  Jesus  had  utterly  condemned  the 
Jewish  hierarchy,  but  he  not  only  failed  to  do  that, 
he  affirmed  the  opposite.  He  assumed  such  an 
original  harmony  between  Christ  and  the  Jewish 
priesthood  that  he  held  Him  to  be  its  Founder.  He 
calls  the  Jewish  priests  "our  predecessors."  In 
fact,  he  takes  over  the  whole  conception  of  the  Jew- 
ish hierarchy  as  developed  in  the  Old  Testament, 
even  in  its  extreme  late  form,  which  was  at  the 
opposite  pole  from  prophetism,  as  the  prototype  of 
the  organization  of  the  Christian  Church.  He 
thus  places  the  Christian  Church  squarely  in  the 
range  of  the  missiles  of  wrath  which  the  prophets 
and  especially  Jesus  had  hurled  at  the  exclusive 
monopolistic  and  exploiting  temple  cult.  Cyprian's 
method  was  that  which  had  become  commonly  em- 
ployed by  church  leaders  after  the  third  century. 
"As  the  churches  became  stocked  with  every  kind 
of  sacred  ceremony,  and  as  they  carefully  devel- 
oped priestly,  sacrificial  and  sacramental  ideas, 
people  began  to  grow  reckless  in  applying  the  letter 
of  the  Old  Testament  ceremonial  laws  to  the  ar- 
rangements of  the  Christian  organization  and  wor- 
ship. In  setting  itself  up  as  a  legalistic  body,  the 
Church  had  recourse  to  the  Old  Testament  in  a  way 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism  181 

that  Paul  had  severely  censured ;  it  fell  back  on  the 
law  though  all  the  while  it  blamed  the  Jews  and 
declared  that  their  observance  of  the  law  was 
quite  illicit.  In  the  practice  of  the  church,  .  .  . 
people  employed  the  Old  Testament,  in  order  to 
get  a  basis  for  usages  which  they  considered  indis- 
pensable. For  a  purpose  of  this  kind  the  New 
Testament  was  of  little  use." l 

Cyprian  was  indeed  the  most  serious  offender. 
By  temperament  and  training  a  legalist  he  identi- 
fied Christianity  with  the  legalism  of  the  "priestly 
code" — a  sacerdotal  forgery  made  by  an  exploiting 
hierarchy  to  further  its  own  interests  by  means  of 
the  falsification  of  history.  Cyprian  finds  the 
priestly  myth  of  Korah,  Dathan  and  Abiram  as 
useful  in  illustrating  God's  indignation  against  those 
who  rejected  the  bishops.  From  this  the  character 
of  his  theology  as  that  of  the  priestly  type  and  as 
foreign  to  the  theology  of  Jesus,  may  be  clearly  in- 
ferred. He  says  distinctly  that  the  Christian 
bishop  is  the  inheritor  of  the  Jewish  High  Priest- 
hood !  Each  diocese  is  ' '  the  congregation  of  I srael . ' ' 
"The  election  of  a  bishop  in  the  presence  of  the 
representatives  of  the  diocese  is  made  in  accord- 
ance with  the  law  of  Moses."  The  bishop  inherits 
the  old  hierarchical  judicial  authority.  Nay  more, 
the  bishop  is  judge  in  Christ's  stead.  Contempt  of 
the  bishop's  government  is  condemned  in  the  law 
and  in  the  books  of  Samuel.     Even  though  the 

1  Harnack,  "Mission  and  Expansion  of  Christianity,"  vol.  I, 
p.  287. 


1 82    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

same  faith  and  worship  are  maintained  as  that  of 
the  bishop,  yet  one  who  invades  his  office  is  guilty 
of  the  veritable  sin  of  Korah.  The  laws  about  the 
High  Priest  were  ultimately  intended  to  apply  to 
the  bishops  and  since  the  failure  of  the  Jewish  hier- 
archy apply  to  them  alone.  Cyprian  goes  so  far  as 
to  claim  the  authority  both  of  St.  Paul  and  of  our 
Lord  Himself  for  this  view.1 

Cyprian  finds  in  the  presbytery  a  continuation  of 
the  Levitic  tribe  (the  inferior  clergy),  " living  on 
the  offerings  of  the  people,  as  their  predecessors  on 
the  tithes,  devoted  day  and  night  to  sacrifice  and 
prayer."2 

In  Cyprian,  quite  unconsciously  to  him  and  to 
his  contemporaries,  the  Apostasy  of  the  Catholic 
Church  from  the  theology  of  Jesus  and  from  the 
social  doctrine  of  the  Kingdom  with  its  democratic 
implications  derived  from  the  doctrine  of  the  in- 
finite worth  of  the  common  man,  reaches  its  official 
completion.  The  Church  of  Christ  is  now  organ- 
ized and  ready  to  be  handed  over  to  the  enemies  of 
Christ,  the  exploiters  of  their  brethren. 

The  influence  of  the  bishops  was  naturally  the 
greatest  at  the  great  centers.  The  preeminence  of 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  made  possible  by  the  op- 
portunities offered  by  the  imperial  city.  It  was  an 
office  to  be  coveted  by  the  ambitious.  The  bishops 
and  deacons  of  Rome  handled  large  sums  of  money 
without  any  control  of  the  finances  by  the  govern- 

1  See  Archbishop  Benson,  "Cyprian,"  p.  34. 

2  Cf.  Benson,  Loc.  cit. 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism  183 

ment  or  by  the  church  itself.  As  might  have  been 
expected  there  were  many  defalcations  in  conse- 
quence. 


If  the  main  thesis  of  this  book  has  been  estab- 
lished, that  the  religion  of  Jesus  was  the  full  reali- 
zation of  the  religion  of  the  insurgent  prophecy,  if 
His  religion  was  the  militant  foe  of  exploiting 
priestly  rule  as  well  as  the  partisan  of  all  the  ex- 
ploited and  oppressed,  then  we  are  forced  to  the 
startling  conclusion  that  even  before  the  days  of 
Constantine  the  Christian  Church  had  strangled 
and  suppressed  the  Gospel  of  its  Founder.  Had  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  as  revealed  in  His  teachings  been  in- 
deed the  guiding  influence  of  the  Church,  it  could 
never  have  exploited  in  its  own  interests  or  made 
an  alliance  with  an  Empire  founded  upon  the  prac- 
tice of  exploitation  as  the  very  life-blood  of  its  ex- 
istence. But  the  Church  as  legalized  according  to 
the  type  of  the  Jewish  theocracy,  under  the  per- 
sonal rule  of  monarchic  bishops,  archbishops,  and 
ultimately  of  popes,  was  admirably  adapted  to 
exploit  on  its  own  account  and  enter  into  an  alli- 
ance of  exploitation  with  the  imperial  power. 
"  These  were  the  Christians  whom  Constantine  de- 
clared to  be  the  support  of  his  throne — people  who 
clung  to  the  bishops  with  submissive  faith  and  who 
would  not  resist  their  divinely  appointed  authority ! 
The  Christianity  that  triumphed  was  the  Chris- 
tianity of  a  blind  faith,  which  Celsus  had  depicted. 


184    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

When  would  a  state  ever  have  shown  any  practical 
interest  in  any  other  kind  of  religion?"1 

The  triumph  of  Christianity  in  the  guise  of  the 
established  church  of  the  empire  was  at  the  same 
time  the  defeat  of  all  that  Jesus  Christ  stood  for  in 
religion.  Under  Constantine  the  Church  reached 
the  climax  of  Christological  elevation  in  exalting 
its  Founder  to  the  rank  of  equality  with  the  Eternal 
God,  but  in  so  doing  it  banished  Him  and  the  Cause 
of  the  Kingdom  from  the  earth  making  Him  tran- 
scendent and  remote  from  the  world  which  He  had 
come  to  save.  At  one  stroke  the  Church  deified 
its  Lord  and  disobeyed  Him.  In  one  voice  it  de- 
clared Him  by  conciliar  authority  to  be  "Very  God 
of  Very  God"  and  while  offering  its  adoration  be- 
trayed Him  into  the  hands  of  High  Priests  and 
rulers  who  crucified  His  doctrine  upon  a  jeweled 
cross  surmounted  by  the  imperial  crown. 

VI 

From  the  time  of  the  alliance  between  the  church 
and  the  Prince  of  the  Gentiles  shameless  exploita- 
tion strode  forward  with  splendid  mien.  The 
bishops  used  the  loyalty  of  their  submissive  people 
to  direct  a  similar  loyalty  to  the  parvenu  Emperor. 
In  return  for  their  (im) moral  support  the  bishops  and 
the  other  clergy  and  the  congregations  committed 
to  their  charge  received  most  generous  financial, 
legal  and  social  recognition.  The  clergy  and  the 
Church  property  were  exempted  from  taxation — -a 
1  Harnack,  op.  cit.  vol.  I,  p.  223. 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism    185 

great  privilege  (and  a  great  mistake  for  us  moderns 
to  have  repeated).  The  rich  endowments  of  the 
pagan  shrines  were  confiscated  and  given  to  the 
Church.  The  temples  of  the  pagan  gods  were  given 
over  to  the  Church  as  places  of  worship,  though  the 
nature  of  that  worship  continued  fundamentally 
more  pagan  than  Christian.  The  Church  received 
generous  donations  from  the  Emperor  himself  and 
from  private  individuals.  It  became  a  large  holder 
of  real  estate  and  was  given  the  right  to  receive  be- 
quests. Its  land  and  its  capital  continued  to  accu- 
mulate. The  clergy  also  enjoyed  judicial  powers. 
The  more  important  bishoprics  were  the  equals 
or  superiors  of  the  governorships  of  Roman 
Provinces  in  worldly  power. 

The  incomes  of  the  clergy  were  placed  upon  a  per- 
manently profitable  basis.  The  Church  had  become 
the  mouthpiece  of  the  Empire  to  bid  men  to  implicit 
obedience  and  the  State  responded  by  filling  the 
mouth  with  all  kinds  of  delectable  nourishment. 

Not  only  were  special  privileges  granted  to 
Churchmen  but  natural  rights  were  withdrawn 
from  those  who  did  not  give  their  allegiance  to  the 
Christian  religion.  Moreover,  those  who  did  not 
loyally  give  their  adherence  to  the  doctrines  estab- 
lished in  the  councils  were  treated  in  this  regard  the 
same  as  the  pagans.  One  who  accepted  the  con- 
ciliary  resolutions  received  from  the  Emperor  immu- 
nity and  privileges.  One  who  did  not  was  liable 
to  confiscation,  banishment  and  death.  The 
Church   had   become  wholly  paganized.     Its  real 


1 86    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

object  of  worship  was  not  Jesus,  the  Prophet  of 
Nazareth  or  the  Father  Whom  He  revealed,  but 
Mammon,  the  god  of  this  world.  "It  held  to  the 
one  and  despised  the  other."  Instead  of  the  leaven 
of  the  Kingdom  leavening  the  world,  the  leaven  of 
mammon  was  to  leaven  the  whole  ecclesiastical 
lump.  Successful  mammon  worship  came  to  be 
recognized  as  a  form  of  piety,  as  the  following  quo- 
tation from  Dr.  Allen's  " Christian  Institutions" 
brings  forth  with  gentle  humor : 

The  bishops  became  rich  in  lands  and  estates  through 
the  gifts  that  were  heaped  upon  them  by  grateful  sov- 
ereigns or  by  the  piety  of  individuals,  of  whose  wealth 
they  seemed  the  most  appropriate  heirs.  Just  as  the 
piety  of  the  time  took  shape  in  the  donations  of  every 
kind  of  property,  so  the  piety  of  the  bishop  was  shown 
in  the  faithful  administration  of  property  by  which  it 
continued  to  increase.  Secular  lords  might  prove  ex- 
travagant and  reckless  with  no  sense  of  the  value  of  their 
estates;  but  the  model  bishop  held  his  property  as  a 
divine  possession,  not  to  be  alienated  but  multiplied  as 
talents  entrusted  to  him  which  it  was  his  duty  to  increase 
many  fold.1 

It  is  to  be  feared  that  much  of  this  same  kind  of 
piety  survives  in  our  modern  parish  institutions. 
It  has  been  the  prevailing  heresy  of  the  Christian 
ages  that  God  wishes  to  be  worshipped  by  means  of 
things  instead  of  by  the  establishing  of  the  Beloved 
Community  which  shall  extend  the  principles  of 
divine  life  and  love  to  all  the  children  of  God. 
1  Op  cit.  p.  205. 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism  187 


APPENDIX  TO   CHAPTER  X 

The  process  by  which  the  Church  became  legal- 
ized, i.  e.,  Romanized,  will  be  indicated  by  the  fol- 
lowing extracts  from  the  chapter  on  Roman  and 
Canon  Law  in  Henry  Osborn  Taylor's  "Mediaeval 
Mind,"  vol.  II,  p.  265: 

The  Church,  from  the  time  of  its  first  recognition  by 
the  Roman  Empire,  lived  under  the  Roman  law;  and  the 
constitutions  safeguarding  its  authority  were  large  and 
ample  before  the  Empire  fell.  Constantine,  to  be  sure, 
never  dreamed  of  the  famous  "  Donation  of  Constantine  " 
forged  by  a  later  time,  yet  his  enactments  fairly  launched 
the  great  mediaeval  Catholic  Church  upon  the  career 
which  was  to  bring  it  more  domination  than  was  granted 
in  this  pseudo-charter  of  its  power.  A  number  of  Con- 
stantine's  enactments  were  preserved  by  the  Theodosian 
Code,  in  which  the  powers  and  privileges  of  Church  and 
clergy  were  portentously  set  forth. 

The  Theodosian  Code  freed  the  property  of  the 
Church  from  most  fiscal  burdens,  and  the  clergy  from 
taxes,  from  public  and  military  service,  and  from  many 
other  obligations  which  sometimes  the  Code  groups  under 
the  head  of  sordida  munera.  The  Church  might  receive 
all  manner  of  bequests,  and  it  inherited  the  property  of 
such  of  its  clergy  as  did  not  leave  near  relatives  surviving 
them.  Its  property  generally  was  inalienable;  and  the 
clergy  were  accorded  many  special  safeguards.  Slaves 
might  be  manumitted  in  a  church.  The  church  edifices 
were  declared  asylums  of  refuge  from  pursuers,  a  priv- 


1 88    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

ilege  which  had  passed  to  the  churches  from  the  heathen 
fanes  and  the  statues  of  the  emperors.  Constitution 
after  constitution  was  hurled  against  the  Church's  ene- 
mies. The  Theodosian  Code  has  one  chapter  contain- 
ing sixty-six  constitutions  directed  against  heretics,  the 
combined  result  of  which  was  to  deprive  them,  if  not  of 
life  and  property,  at  least  of  protected  legal  existence. 

Of  enormous  import  was  the  sweeping  recognition  on 
the  Empire's  part  of  the  validity  of  episcopal  jurisdic- 
tion. No  bishop  might  be  summoned  before  a  secular 
court  as  a  defendant,  or  compelled  to  give  testimony. 
Falsely  to  accuse  one  of  the  clergy  rendered  the  accuser 
infamous.  All  matters  pertaining  to  religion  and  church 
discipline  might  be  brought  only  before  the  bishop's 
court,  which  likewise  had  plenary  jurisdiction  over  con- 
troversies among  the  clergy.  It  was  also  open  to  the 
laity  for  the  settlement  of  civil  disputes.  The  command 
not  to  go  to  law  before  the  heathen  came  down  from 
Paul  (I  Cor.  vi),  and  together  with  the  severed  and  per- 
secuted condition  of  the  early  Christian  communities, 
may  be  regarded  as  the  far  source  of  the  episcopal  juris- 
diction, which  thus  divinely  sanctioned  tended  to  extend 
its  arbitrament  to  all  manner  of  legal  controversies.  To  be 
sure,  under  the  Christian  Roman  Empire,  the  authority 
of  the  Church  as  well  as  its  privileges  rested  upon  impe- 
rial law.  Yet  the  emperors  recognized,  rather  than 
actually  created,  the  ecclesiastical  authority.  And  when 
the  Empire  was  shattered,  there  stood  the  Church  erect 
amid  the  downfall  of  the  imperial  government,  and  capa- 
ble of  supporting  itself  in  the  new  Teutonic  kingdoms. 

The  Church  arose  within  the  Roman  Empire,  and  who 
shall  say  that  its  wonderfully  efficient  and  complete  or- 


Cult  Becomes  an  Exploiting  Ecclesiasticism   189 

ganization  at  the  close  of  the  patristic  period  was  not  the 
final  creation  of  the  legal  and  constructive  genius  of 
Rome,  newly  inspired  by  the  spirit  of  Christianity? 

The  canon  law  is  a  vast  sea.  Its  growth,  its  age-long 
agglomerate  accretion,  the  systematization  of  its  huge 
contents,  have  long  been  subjects  for  controversialists 
and  scholars.  Its  sources  were  as  multifarious  as  those 
of  the  Roman  law.  First  the  Scriptures  and  the  early 
quasi-apostolic  and  pseudo-apostolic  writings;  then  the 
traditions  of  primitive  Christianity  and  also  the  writings 
of  the  Fathers;  likewise  ecclesiastical  customs,  long  ac- 
cepted and  legitimate,  and  finally  the  two  great  written 
sources,  the  decretals  or  decisions  of  the  popes  and  the 
decrees  of  councils.  From  patristic  times  collections 
were  made  of  the  last.  These  collections  from  a  chrono- 
logical gradually  acquired  a  topical  and  more  systemic 
arrangement,  which  the  compilers  followed  more  com- 
pletely after  the  opening  of  the  tenth  century.  The  de- 
cisions of  the  popes  also  had  been  collected,  and  then 
were  joined  to  conciliar  compilations  and  arranged  after 
the  same  topical  plan. 

In  all  of  them  there  was  unauthentic  matter,  accepted 
as  if  its  pseudo-authorship  or  pseudo-source  were  gen- 
uine. But  in  the  stormy  times  of  the  ninth  century 
following  the  death  of  Charlemagne,  the  method  of  argu- 
ment through  forged  authority  was  exceptionally  crea- 
tive. It  produced  two  masterpieces  which  won  universal 
acceptance.  The  first  was  a  collection  of  false  Capitu- 
laries ascribed  to  Charlemagne  and  Louis  the  Pious,  and 
ostensibly  the  work  of  a  certain  Benedictus  Levita,  dea- 
con of  the  Church  of  Mainz,  who  worked  in  the  middle 
of  the  century.     Far  more  famous  and  important  was 


190    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

the  book  of  False  Decretals,  put  together  and  largely 
written,  that  is  forged,  about  the  same  time,  probably 
in  the  diocese  of  Rheims,  and  appearing  as  the  work  of 
Saint  Isidore  of  Seville.  This  contained  many  forged 
letters  of  the  early  popes  and  other  forged  matter,  includ- 
ing the  Epistle  or  " Donation"  of  Constantine;  also  gen- 
uine papal  letters  and  concilar  decrees.  These  false  col- 
lections were  accepted  by  councils  and  popes,  and  formed 
part  of  subsequent  compilations. 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  191 


CHAPTER  XI 

SOME    CHRISTIAN    INSURGENT    PROPHETS 

Having  traced  the  history  of  the  Catholic  Church 
to  the  point  where  exploitation  had  come  to  be  rec- 
ognized as  a  form  of  piety  it  would  be  necessary 
practically  to  rehearse  the  history  of  the  entire 
mediaeval  church  in  order  to  show  how  the  prin- 
ciple was  worked  out  and  extended.  In  the  East 
the  patriarchates  grew  to  the  dimensions  of  king- 
doms. In  the  West  the  papacy  became  virtually 
a  theocratic  empire.  Its  dominion  was  not  only 
extended  over  the  national  churches,  all  of  which 
were  made  to  pay  tribute  greatly  in  excess  of  the 
revenues  of  their  respective  kingdoms,  but  it  exer- 
cised an  over-lordship  over  kingly  courts,  and  so 
long  as  its  anathemas  and  fears  were  held  in  super- 
stitious regard  it  could  bend  recalcitrant  kings  and 
emperors  to  its  sovereign  will. 

But  powerful  as  the  church  was  both  ecclesias- 
tically and  politically  it  could  not  absolutely  stifle 
the  voices  of  a  new  race  of  insurgent  prophets 
which  from  time  to  time  arose  to  denounce  its  ex- 
ploitations and  to  preach  a  return  to  the  simplicity 
of  the  social  Gospel  of  Christ.  We  can  do  little 
more  than  call  the  roll  of  a  few  more  honored  names. 

I 
In  Arnold  of  Brescia,  born  in  1100,  we  find  a  real 
prophet  with  a  program  for  Christianizing  the  polit- 


192    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

ical  and  social  order.  Resisting  all  temptations 
to  indulge  in  exploitation  he  lived  in  Evangelical 
poverty.  Walter  Mapes,  the  English  traveler, 
records  his  impression  of  him  in  the  following  words : 
"In  religion,  a  leader  of  leaders,  allowing  himself 
neither  food  nor  clothing  beyond  what  the  strictest 
necessity  compelled,  he  went  about  preaching,  seek- 
ing nothing  for  himself  but  all  for  God,  and  became 
loved  and  admired  by  all."1  Mapes,  however, 
should  have  excepted  from  the  number  of  those 
who  loved  and  admired  him  the  exploiting  eccle- 
siastics and  secular  rulers.  His  denunciations  of 
the  wealth  and  self-indulgence  of  the  clergy  richly 
earned  their  dislike,  but  it  was  his  political  teachings 
that  were  taken  as  the  ground  for  his  persecution. 
On  scriptural  grounds  he  maintained  that  the  pope 
should  not  exercise  political  rule.  Rome  should 
properly  come  under  the  government  of  an  Emperor 
who  should  receive  his  office  not  by  right  of  succes- 
sion but  through  a  popular  election.  Arnold  was  the 
foe  at  once  of  ecclesiastical  and  political  autocracy. 
The  citizens  of  Rome  for  a  time  accepted  his 
doctrine  and  made  him  the  head  of  a  de  facto  repub- 
lic which  for  ten  years  succeeded  in  compelling  the 
Pope  to  relinquish  his  temporal  power.  At  the  end 
of  this  ten  year  period  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor 
made  common  cause  against  him.  The  soldiers  of 
Barbarossa  succeeded  in  capturing  the  prophet  and 
handed  him  over  to  the  "Vicar  of  God"  who  caused 
him  to  be  hanged  and  burned,  after  which  his  ashes 
1  De  Nugis  Curial.     Dist.  I,  24. 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  193 

were  desecrated  by  being  cast  into  the  Tiber.  Thus 
the  prophetic  messenger  was  found  worthy  to  meet 
the  prophet's  fate. 

II 

Francis  of  Assisi  was  a  Churchman  of  a  far  gen- 
tler type,  who,  though  he  was  sparing  of  denuncia- 
tion, was  nevertheless  keenly  aware  of  evils  and 
abuses  and  in  his  own  way  gave  his  life  to  remedy- 
ing them.  He,  therefore,  deserves  a  place  among 
the  prophets.  What  others  had  attempted  to  do 
by  agitation  or  political  revolt,  Francis  undertook 
to  accomplish  by  means  of  an  organized  social  move- 
ment within  the  Church.  It  was  an  attempt  to 
found  a  religious  order  the  rule  of  which  should  be 
true  to  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  It  was  an  at- 
tempt to  unite  a  body  of  earnest  men,  committed 
to  Evangelical  poverty,  who  should  adopt  as  the 
central  principle  of  their  conduct  Jesus'  law  of  serv- 
ice. He  wrote  to  the  Superiors  of  the  Order,  "  'I 
did  not  come  to  be  ministered  unto  but  to  minister,' 
says  the  Lord.  Let  those  who  are  set  above  others 
glory  in  their  superiority  only  as  much  as  if  they 
had  been  deputed  to  wash  the  feet  of  the  brothers." l 

The  vows  of  poverty,  chastity,  and  obedience, 
were  supposedly  taken  by  all  the  mediaeval  relig- 
ious orders,  but  this  did  not  prevent  them  from 
attaining  great  corporate  wealth.  They  became 
one  of  the  great  organs  of  ecclesiastical  exploitation. 

1  "Writings  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi,"  edited  by  Father  Pascal 
Robinson,  Philadelphia,  1906,  p.  9. 


194    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

The  popular  antagonism  to  them  in  a  later  period 
was  based  upon  their  great  wealth  and  their  means 
of  getting  it. 

Francis  gave  great  thought  and  attention  to  pre- 
vent any  possible  kind  of  exploitation  by  the  mem- 
bers of  his  community  whether  as  individuals  or 
collectively.  They  were  not  to  beg  alms  except 
when  the  opportunity  to  earn  the  necessities  of  life 
was  denied  them,  and  then  they  were  forbidden  to 
accept  money.  They  sought  to  go  back  to  the  time 
when  the  preachers  of  religion  earned  their  own 
living  while  preaching  the  Gospel — to  the  time  when 
Jesus  was  a  carpenter,  the  Apostles  were  fishermen, 
when  St.  Paul  was  a  tent-maker.  They  were  not 
even  to  accept  money  as  wages  in  return  for  actual 
labor,  but  only  food  and  shelter.  They  were  not 
permitted  to  engage  in  all  kinds  of  labor  but  only 
such  as  were  productive.  "Let  the  brothers,  in 
whatever  places  they  may  be  among  others  to  serve 
or  to  work,  not  be  chamberlains,  nor  cellarers,  nor 
over-seers,  in  the  houses  of  those  whom  they  serve, 
and  let  them  not  accept  any  employment  which 
might  cause  scandal,  or  be  injurious  to  their  soul, 
but  let  them  be  inferior  and  subject  to  all  who  are 
in  the  same  house.  And  let  the  brothers,  .  .  . 
labor  and  exercise  themselves  in  that  art  they  may 
understand.  .  .  .  For  the  prophet  says:  'For 
thou  shalt  eat  the  labors  of  thine  hands,  blessed 
art  thou,  and  it  shall  be  well  with  thee;'  and  the 
Apostle:  'If  any  man  will  not  work  neither  let  him 
eat ;'  and  let  every  man  abide  in  the  art  or  employ- 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  195 

ment  wherein  he  was  called.  And  for  their  labor 
they  may  receive  all  necessary  things,  except  money. 
.  .  .  And  they  may  have  the  tools  and  implements 
necessary  for  their  work.  .  .  ."1  These  rules 
were  intended  for  the  members  of  the  first  order, 
the  friars  proper,  but  the  program  of  Francis  em- 
braced a  third  order  intended  to  include  men  and 
women  of  the  laity  in  their  daily  lives.  This  plan 
entitles  him  to  be  ranked  as  a  great  social  reformer. 

The  four  rules  of  the  "tertiaries"  were,  (1)  that 
members  should  not  carry  offensive  weapons;  (2) 
nor  take  solemn  oaths;  (3)  they  were  required  to 
contribute  monthly  dues  to  a  common  fund;  and 
(4)  to  make  their  wills  within  three  months  after 
their  admission  to  the  order.2 

These  seemingly  simple  rules  contemplated  noth- 
ing less  than  the  complete  overthrow  of  the  exploit- 
ing feudal  system.  The  second  provision  practi- 
cally absolved  the  members  of  the  order  from  oaths 
of  allegiance  to  the  feudal  lords  by  which  the  latter 
held  the  right  to  enforce  their  vassals  into  their 
personal  quarrels.  The  third  rule  contemplated 
the  accumulation  of  a  fund  which  would  enable 
the  serfs  to  aid  each  other  in  adversity  and  ulti- 
mately to  purchase  their  liberty.  The  object  of 
the  fourth  rule  was  to  prevent  the  feudal  abuse 
under  which  the  liege  lord  claimed  the  property  of 
all  the  serfs  who  died  intestate.     Honorius  III  and 

1  Rule  I,  sections  8  and  9,  Ed.  cited  pp.  41-44. 

2  Cf.  Leo  L.  Dubois,  "St.  Francis  of  Assisi,  Social  Reformer," 
P.  52. 

15 


196    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Gregory  IX  supported  the  tertiaries  in  their  rights 
to  adhere  to  this  rule  when  it  was  contested  by  the 
feudal  lords.  It  therefore  accomplished  what  was 
intended  by  Francis.  In  recognition  of  his  services 
to  the  common  people,  Sabatier  has  called  him 
"The  Father  of  Italian  Democracy"  and  Cristofani 
has  called  him  "The  Patriarch  of  the  Religion  of 
Democracy." 

It  thus  appears  that  Francis  possessed  a  marked 
capacity  which  has  not  been  generally  credited  to 
him,  that  of  a  gifted  politician.  This  he  used  not 
after  the  manner  of  most  men  with  this  endowment 
for  purposes  of  self-aggrandizement  through  exploi- 
tation but  he  used  his  talent  with  the  object  in  view 
of  combating  exploitation.  But  in  this  his  gift 
was  no  match  for  that  of  the  past-master  exploiting 
politicians  of  Rome.  After  his  death  they  suc- 
ceeded in  subordinating  his  ideals  and  methods 
so  that  even  his  own  order  finally  became  an  arm 
of  the  exploiting  papal  political  machine. 

Ill 

Another  Italian  of  still  different  mould  has  claims 
to  be  ranked  in  the  list  of  Christian  insurgent 
prophets,  Dante.  The  Divine  Comedy  of  this  poet 
is  full  of  prophetic  wrath  against  the  abuses  of  his 
time  and  he  literally  places  exploiting  Popes,  simo- 
niacs,  and  ecclesiastical  grafters  in  hell.  His  program 
for  reform  contemplated  the  reduction  of  those 
powers  of  the  Church  which  it  used  for  purposes 
of  exploitation  by  the  power  of  an  ideal  emperor. 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  197 

The  de  Monarchia  of  Dante  contains  the  picture 
of  a  universal  community  with  a  kind  of  Messianic 
monarch  at  its  head.  His  ruler  is  a  "  monarch 
who  loves  men  greatly  .  .  .  He  desires  all  men 
to  do  good."  (Chapter  12.)  It  has  been  said 
that  the  de  Monarchia  of  Dante  was  an  epitaph 
rather  than  a  prophecy.  He  had,  however,  an 
ideal  which  had  striking  Messianic  affinities  as  is 
brought  out  by  the  following  quotation  from  Joseph 
Mazzini,  "The  ideas  of  which  I  have  here  given 
a  sketch  (the  Titanic  dream  of  an  Italy,  the 
leader  of  humanity  and  angel  of  light  among  the 
nations)  are  fermenting,  more  or  less  boldly  devel- 
oped, among  the  youth  of  Italy.  Understanding 
Dante  better  than  those  who  write  about  him,  they 
revere  him  as  the  prophet  of  the  nation,  and  as  the 
one  who  gave  to  Italy  not  only  the  scepter  of  mod- 
ern poetry  but  the  initiative  thought  of  a  new  phi- 
losophy."1 Dinsmore  says  of  him  "like  the  stern 
Hebrew  prophet  whom  he  so  much  resembles  this 
Tuscan  seer  was  an  ardent  patriot.  He  never  di- 
vorced his  religion  from  his  politics,  but  brought 
both  under  the  same  august  moral  order."2 

Another  fellow  countryman  of  Dante,  Marsig- 
lio  of  Padua,  the  joint  author  with  John  of  Jandun 
of  the  Defensor  Pads,  deserves  a  place  on  the  pro- 
phetic roll  of  honor.  It  is  of  special  interest  for  us 
to-day  that  he  advocated  political  democracy  and 

1  Essay  on  Dante. 

2  Charles  Allen  Dinsmore,  "The  Teachings  of  Dante,"  1901, 
P- 57- 


198    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

the  greatest  possible  freedom  of  opinion  in  theo- 
logical and  ecclesiastical  matters.  He  advocated 
the  principle  that  "heretics"  are  to  be  left  to  the 
judgment  of  Christ;  errors  in  opinion  are  not  sub- 
ject to  human  judgment.1 

IV 

Turning  now  to  England  we  find  in  the  writings 
of  William  Langland,  a  peasant  priest,  a  complete 
draft  of  the  prophetical  interpretation  of  Chris- 
tianity and  of  the  doctrines  of  the  Kingdom  of  God, 
in  his  "The  Vision  of  William,  Concerning  Piers 
the  Ploughman."  The  corruption  and  exploita- 
tion on  the  part  of  ecclesiastics,  the  secular  nobility 
and  the  monarchy  are  dealt  with  in  a  most  trench- 
ant manner.  Christianity  is  made  to  consist  in  the 
law  of  love.  Deliverance  from  evils  is  sought  in  a 
return  to  the  moral  leadership  of  the  lowly  peasant 
of  Nazareth  who  is  typified  by  the  figure  of  Piers 
the  Ploughman.  The  quest  for  truth  must  be 
made  through  a  life  of  love  to  God  and  fellowman, 
abstention  from  all  injury  and  an  observance  of  all 
the  commandments.  They  who  thus  live  by  divine 
grace  will  discover  truth  within  their  own  hearts 
united  to  love.  As  a  reform  method  of  doing  away 
with  abuses  Piers  would  set  all  the  idlers  and  wasters 
at  productive  toil.  This  would  prove  a  means  of 
the  removal  of  all  social  evils  and  protect  the  poor 
from  exploitation  by  the  idle  rich. 

1  See  Reginald  Lane  Poole's  "Some  Illustrations  of  Mediaeval 
Thought." 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  199 

Against  the  Church's  claim  to  have  the  keys  of 
heaven  and  hell,  which  doctrine  lay  at  the  basis 
of  the  practice  of  the  sale  of  indulgences  and  other 
corrupt  abuses,  Piers  declares  that  any  and  all  who 
do  the  Will  of  God  by  establishing  His  justice  here 
in  human  society  will  hear  the  words  "Well  done, 
thou  good  and  faithful  servant,  enter  thou  into  the 
joy  of  thy  Lord."  What  seems  to  have  been  the 
original  poem  concludes  with  the  prayer,  "That 
God  may  give  us  grace  to  work  such  works  while 
we  are  here,  that  after  our  death  at  the  day  of  judg- 
ment, 'Do- Well'  shall  rehearse  that  we  did  as  He 
commanded."1 

The  ideas  of  the  poem  are  further  carried  out  in 
the  "Vita  de  Do-wel,  Do-bet  and  Do-best."  In 
this  continuation  of  the  poem  the  character  of  Piers 
the  Ploughman  continues  to  play  the  chief  role. 
The  poet  carries  out  the  idea  that  if  all  men  were 
engaged  in  useful  and  productive  labor,  and  none 
took  more  out  of  the  common  products  than  he 
actually  required,  all  would  be  "in  common  rich."2 
The  allegorical  figure  of  Piers  the  Ploughman  stands 
for  the  type  of  man  which  is  to  save  society  from 
its  wrongs  and  inequalities.  Thus,  like  his  Master, 
Piers  becomes  a  saviour  of  society,  Christ  becomes 
identified  with  the  humblest  of  His  brethren,  and 
Piers,  in  turn,  is  merged  into  Christ.  The  soli- 
darity of  mankind  includes  Christ  and  all  His  fol- 

1  Passus  7,  lines  196-200. 

2  Passus  18,  line  43,  C — text. 


200    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

lowers,  and  the  Cross  of  Christ  becomes  the  bond 
of  this  unified  humanity,  as  the  poet  says; 

We  are  all  Christ's  creatures,  and  of  his  coffers  rich, 
And  brethren  of  one  blood,  as  well  beggars  as  earls. 
For  on  Calvary  of  Christ's  blood  Christendom  sprang, 
And  there  we  became  brethren  by  blood.1 

It  is  to  the  humble  peasant  class  of  the  fourteenth 
century  to  which  the  author  looks  to  incarnate  the 
love  of  Christ  and  thereby  reform  the  abuses  of 
society  and  the  Church.  The  good  Samaritan  was 
the  embodiment  of  loving  service  and  when  the 
poet  has  a  vision  of  him  he  is  struck  by  his  resem- 
blance to  Piers  the  Ploughman.  This  love  is  the 
one  essential.  The  faith  and  the  hope  as  held  in 
the  Church  are  seen  in  the  guise  of  priest  and  Levite 
who  pass  by  on  the  other  side.  In  Piers  the  Incar- 
nation is  extended.  Christ  is  seen  as  a  Knight  who 
wore  for  his  armor  the  flesh  of  Piers  the  Ploughman, 
Thus  the  poet  symbolizes  the  ancient  warfare  of 
Him  Who  came  to  save  the  world  in  the  Person  of 
the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth.  The  Word  which 
became  flesh  in  the  days  of  Christ  is  to  become  flesh 
again  in  the  persons  of  the  poet's  lowly  contem- 
poraries in  whom  the  Spirit  of  Christ  is  to  continue 
His  warfare  of  the  Kingdom.  This  striking  con- 
ception is  the  climax  of  the  whole  allegory. 

But  the  powers  of  evil  are  still  at  large  in  the 
world  and  a  purified  militant  Church  must  set  for- 
ward the  warfare  of  its  ascended  Lord  against  them. 
1  Passus  ii,  i.  191  f.  B — text. 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  201 

The  Church  is  represented  by  the  poet  as  having 
been  built  to  receive  the  harvest  of  the  Gospel. 
It  thus  resembles  a  great  barn  or  storehouse.  Piers 
the  Ploughman  is  represented  as  going  forth  into 
the  world  to  cultivate  the  harvest  of  truth.  He  is 
not,  like  the  clergy,  one  of  the  guardians  of  the 
storehouse,  who  remain  within,  for  he  is  doing  God's 
work  in  the  world. 

Humanity  is  now  attacked  by  all  the  evils  and 
abuses  which  have  been  exposed  earlier  in  the  poem 
— injustice,  inequality,  wrongs,  political  and  social, 
personified  as  the  hosts  of  anti-Christ.  When  thus 
attacked,  the  common  people  as  of  right  look  to  the 
Church  for  refuge.  But  the  Church,  alas,  because 
of  treachery  and  abuses  within,  can  offer  no  ade- 
quate protection.  The  rightful  leader  of  the  Church 
is  Conscience,  but  Conscience  has  been  weakened 
by  the  false  dealings  of  Envy,  Hypocrisy  and  Flat- 
tery, who  hold  positions  of  influence  within  the 
Church.  These  have,  as  co-conspirators,  a  friar, 
who  attempts  to  salve  Conscience,  by  administering 
soothing  but  deadly  drugs  of  absolution,  dispen- 
sations, and  indulgences.  Aware  of  his  danger 
Conscience  calls  out  for  his  ally,  "Contrition,"  to 
come  to  his  rescue,  but  Contrition  does  not  re- 
spond, having  also  been  drugged  with  a  plaster 
called  ' '  Privy-payment. ' '  Realizing  that  within  the 
Church  he  is  in  the  hands  of  dangerous  enemies 
Conscience  by  a  supreme  effort  succeeds  in  escaping 
and  goes  forth  in  quest  of  Piers  the  Ploughman. 
Thus  the  author's  hope,  as  was  the  case  in  proph- 


202    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

etism  and  in  primitive  Christianity,  is  placed  in 
the  religious  layman  who  alone  can  be  relied  upon 
to  correct  the  abuses  of  a  corrupt  and  exploiting 
ecclesiasticism. 

The  relationship  between  Langland  and  his  learned 
contemporary,  John  Wycliffe,  is  not  clear.  But 
there  is  ground  for  the  interesting  conjecture  that 
he  may  have  been  one  of  Wycliffe's  "poor  priests." 
However  that  may  be,  the  peasant  preacher  by  rea- 
son of  his  employment  of  " direct  insight"  has  given 
a  somewhat  profounder  interpretation  of  the  Mind 
of  Christ  than  the  learned  Oxford  professor  who 
was  encumbered  by  his  learning,  by  his  use  of  the 
scholastic  logic,  and  by  his  predestinarian  theology. 
In  spite  of  these  drawbacks  he  made  positive  con- 
tributions to  the  prophetic  campaign  against  ec- 
clesiastical exploitation. 

His  chief  interest  centered  in  the  proposal  ad- 
vocated by  the  secular  goverment  of  England  to 
place  restrictions  upon  the  extortions  of  the  Roman 
Church  by  means  of  a  program  of  disendowment. 
In  the  reign  of  Edward  III,  "the  Commons  com- 
plained that  the  taxes  paid  to  the  Pope  amounted 
yearly  to  five  times  the  sum  paid  to  the  crown."1 
The  problem  was  to  find  a  legal  means  of  correcting 
this  recognized  abuse.  The  attempt  to  justify 
such  a  procedure  on  moral  grounds  was  made  in 
Wycliffe's  tract  "  De  Dominio  Civili"  2     In  this  Wy- 

1  Cunningham,  "The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Com- 
merce," p.  273. 

2  Wycliffe  Society  Publications. 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  203 

cliffe  undertakes  to  show  that  the  Church  had  no 
moral  right  to  its  endowments.  He  held  that  it 
was  unscriptural  for  the  followers  of  Christ  to  hold 
endowments.  He  contended  that  the  evil  man  had 
no  moral  right  to  hold  property.  It  involved  the 
heinous  sin  of  mammon  worship,  the  worst  form 
of  idolatry.  He  sought  to  anticipate  the  danger 
that  disendowment  might  lead  to  the  cry  of  martyr- 
dom by  declaring  that  any  one  who  died — not  for 
the  cause  of  another  but  for  the  sake  of  avaricious- 
ness — was  no  more  than  a  "stinking  martyr." 

In  place  of  the  existing  feudal  lordship  Wycliffe 
proposed  the  ideal  of  "Evangelical  lordship"  based 
upon  the  law  of  service  as  formulated  in  Luke  22 :  24- 
27.  He  held  that  the  law  of  love  as  formulated  by 
Paul  in  I  Corinthians  13  should  be  made  to  apply 
to  the  social  order,  and  that  the  law  of  the  Gospel 
ought  properly  to  be  taken  as  the  basis  of  daily 
life  superseding  the  civil  law.  He  recognized  that 
this  would  logically  lead  to  communism  which  he 
recognized  as  the  ideal  form  of  social  organization. 
The  administration  should  be  in  the  hands  of  an 
aristocracy,  or  government  by  the  best,  who  would 
conduct  it  in  the  interests  of  all.  He  declared  that 
the  Jewish  theocracy  which  followed  the  downfall 
of  the  monarchy  was  the  worst  conceivable  form  of 
government  which  reached  its  logical  outcome  in 
the  crucifixion  of  Jesus. 

While  holding  to  the  theoretical  superiority  of 
communism  Wycliffe  felt  that  it  was  rendered  im- 
practicable by  the  preponderance  of  sinful  men  in 


204    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

the  community.  As  he  wished  to  attain  immediate 
reform  he  upheld  the  monarchy  and  sought  to  use 
it  as  an  instrument  in  reforming  the  Church.  In 
this  respect  he  was  followed  by  Martin  Luther. 

But  Wycliffe's  greatest  service  to  the  cause  of 
Christian  democracy  lay  in  his  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  and  in  the  organization  of  the  poor  priests 
to  give  the  Gospel  Message  to  the  common  people. 
The  prophetic  nature  of  this  movement  is  well 
brought  out  in  the  following  description  which  we 
quote  from  Thorold  Rogers: 

By  Wycliffe's  labors,  the  Biblemen  had  been  intro- 
duced to  the  new  world  of  the  Old  Testament,  to  the 
history  of  the  human  race,  to  the  primeval  Garden  and 
the  young  world,  where  the  first  parents  of  all  mankind  lived 
by  simple  toil,  and  were  the  ancestors  of  the  proud  noble 
and  knight,  as  well  as  of  the  down-trodden  serf  and  des- 
pised burgher.  They  read  of  the  brave  times  when  there 
was  no  king  in  Israel,  when  every  man  did  that  was  right 
in  his  own  eyes,  and  sat  under  his  own  vine  and  fig-tree, 
none  daring  to  make  him  afraid.  They  read  how  God, 
through  His  prophet,  had  warned  Israel  of  the  evils 
which  would  come  to  them  when  a  king  should  rule  over 
them,  and  how  speedily  this  was  verified  in  the  conduct 
of  the  young  Rehoboam  .  .  .  The  God  of  Israel  had 
bidden  His  people  to  be  husbandmen,  and  not  mounted 
knights  and  men  at  arms.  But,  most  of  all,  the  preacher 
would  dwell  on  his  own  prototype,  on  the  man  of  God, 
the  wise  prophet  who  denounced  kings  and  princes  and 
high  priests,  and  by  God's  commission,  made  them  like 
a  potter's  vessel,  in  the  day  of  His  wrath;  or  on  those  bold 
judges,  who  were  zealous  even  to  slaying. 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  205 

For  with  this  Book,  so  old,  and  yet  so  new,  the  peasant 
preacher  .  .  .  could  stir  up  the  souls  of  these  clowns 
with  the  true  narrative  of  another  people,  and  would  be 
sure  that  his  way  to  their  hearts  and  their  confidence, 
would  be,  as  it  always  has  been  with  the  leaders  of  relig- 
ious revival,  by  entirely  sympathizing  with  their  wrongs, 
their  sufferings,  and  their  hopes.1 

Fortunately  for  Wycliffe,  "his  martyrdom"  did 
not  occur  till  fifty  years  after  his  death.  It  was 
then  purely  symbolical,  consisting  in  the  desecra- 
tion of  his  grave  and  the  violation  of  his  ashes. 

V 

While  the  prophetic  spirit  was  enkindled  in  Eng- 
land in  the  manner  described,  a  similar  stirring 
was  manifested  in  contemporary  Bohemia.  The 
religious  issue  wdiich  was  there  confronted  has  been 
formulated  by  Palacky,  the  historian — as  follows: 
"Whether  Christianity,  as  it  existed  at  that  time 
in  the  Western  Church,  was  true  to  the  Mind 
of  its  Divine  Founder  and  Proclaimer,  whether  it 
had  not  drifted  in  certain  respects  from  Him,  and 
whether  it  ought  not  to  be  brought  back  into  its 
original  track;  this  question  applies,  alike,  to  the 
theory  and  practice  of  Christianity;  that  is,  to  the 
doctrine  as  well  as  the  constitution  and  discipline 
of  the  Church."2  In  modern  phrase  the  watch- 
word of  the  movement  was  "  Back  to  Christ." 

1  J.  E.  Thorold  Rogers,  "Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages," 

p.  254  f- 

*  Palacky,  Geschichte  von  Bohmen,  vol.  Ill,  p.  155. 


206    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

High  on  the  prophetic  roll  of  honor  should  be 
inscribed  the  name  of  Konrad  Waldhauser.  The 
striking  thing  about  this  prophet  was  the  fact  of 
his  having  been  Court  chaplain  to  the  reigning 
house  of  Bohemia,  He  is  the  only  prophet  ever 
known  to  have  held  such  a  position  and  it  speaks 
volumes  for  the  moral  seriousness  of  the  Court 
that  his  preaching  proved  acceptable.  The  power 
of  his  preaching  may  be  inferred  from  its  practical 
fruit  as  described  by  Palacky.  "The  proud  women 
by  degrees  laid  aside  their  accustomed  jewels  and 
costly  veils,  their  clothing  set  with  gold  and  pearls, 
and  clothed  themselves  simply.  Usury  ceased,  and 
many  flagrant  usurers  volunteered  to  compen- 
sate their  victims!  Notorious  prostitutes.  .  .  . 
whose  activities  in  leading  away  the  daughters  of 
honest  burghers,  had  even  penetrated  within  the 
Churches,  repented  and  set  an  example  of  piety 
and  soberness."1  Konrad  was  himself  so  amazed 
at  these  results  that  he  exclaimed,  "How  is  it  that 
the  population  shows  me  so  much  love  and  attach- 
ment while  I  do  not  cease  to  scourge  it?  The  men- 
dicant monks,  on  the  other  hand,  do  the  opposite 
in  their  preaching ;  they  flatter  the  people,  and  be- 
hold their  Churches  are  empty!"2 

Not  only  did  the  mendicant  monks  and  secular 
clergy  abstain  from  preaching  repentance,  but  they 
declined  to  follow  the  example  of  the  repentant 
laity  when  Konrad  attacked  their  simony  and  ex- 

x0p.  cit.  vol.  Ill,  p.  166. 
2  Ibid. 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  207 

ploitation.  The  Dominicans,  following  the  example 
of  the  Jerusalem  priesthood,  attempted  to  have  the 
prophet  convicted  of  heresy,  the  favorite  method 
among  the  clergy  who  were  more  zealous  for  ' '  sound- 
ness in  the  faith"  than  for  purity  of  morals.  Kon- 
rad  had  accused  the  orders  of  such  degeneracy  "  that, 
if  their  founders  should  reappear  among  them  and 
attempt  to  hold  them  to  their  rule,  they  would  not 
only  refuse  to  recognize  but  would  stone  them."1 
To  the  credit  of  the  Bohemian  king  (who  was  also 
the  Emperor,  Karl  IV,  of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire), 
be  it  said  that  largely  owing  to  his  intervention  the 
charges  of  heresy  failed. 

But  though  the  clergy  in  general,  unlike  the  men 
of  Nineveh,  did  not  heed  the  call  to  repentance, 
there  was  one  notable  exception,  Milic  von  Krem- 
sier,  the  dean  ("Domherr")  of  the  Prague  Cathe- 
dral, who  brought  forth  fruits  meet  for  repentance. 
Through  the  favor  of  the  Emperor  he  had  been 
holding  a  plurality  of  benefices.  On  his  conversion 
he  decided  to  give  up  all  ecclesiastical  revenues 
and  honors  in  order  truly  to  follow  in  the  footsteps 
of  Christ.  For  a  year  he  acted  as  curate  to  a  country 
parish  priest  in  order  to  study  "the  cure  of  souls." 
He  seems  to  have  been  greatly  impressed  by  the  doc- 
trines of  the  anti-Christ  whose  domination  seemed 
apparent  among  all  classes  of  people,  especially 
among  the  higher  clergy,  the  monks,  and  the  rulers 
of  the  state.  The  quality  of  his  courage  may  be 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  in  an  assembly  attended 
1  Palacky,  Loc.  cit. 


208    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

by  Karl  IV  he  declared  in  his  sermon  that  the  Em- 
peror was  no  less  than  the  great  anti-Christ  him- 
self. The  magnanimity  of  this  Emperor  was  again 
exhibited  by  twice  interposing  on  behalf  of  the 
prophet  when  he  had  to  meet  charges  preferred 
against  him  by  the  clergy  to  the  Pope.  The  second 
charge  of  heresy  comprised  twelve  counts  which 
are  worth  repeating  as  throwing  light  upon  the 
prevalent  ideas  of  heresy  among  the  clergy.  They 
comprised  his  doctrine  of  anti-Christ,  his  denuncia- 
tion of  usury,  his  recommendation  of  frequent 
reception  of  the  communion  by  the  laity;  his  treat- 
ment of  the  converted  prostitutes,  which  was  de- 
scribed as,  at  the  same  time,  too  rigid  and  too  len- 
ient ;  his  denunciations  of  the  clergy ;  his  attitude  on 
excommunication,  which  they  declared  he  regarded 
lightly;  his  alleged  condemnation  of  the  study  of 
the  liberal  arts;  his  forbidding  of  ornaments  to  the 
wearing  apparel  of  women ;  his  alleged  haughtiness 
and  shielding  of  himself  behind  the  worldly  power, 
which  he  was  accused  of  arousing  against  the  spirit- 
ual; and,  finally,  upon  his  doctrine  of  ''Evangelical 
poverty, "  which,  they  declared,  would  allow  no  pri- 
vate possessions  to  the  clergy. 

The  Bohemian  prophetic  movement  culminated 
in  the  persons  of  John  Huss  and  Jerome  of  Prague, 
avowed  disciples  of  John  Wycliffe,  who  were  to  suffer 
the  martyr's  death  for  their  adherence  to  the  Eng- 
lish reformer's  doctrine.  The  immediate  cause  of 
their  trial  was  Huss's  unsparing  denunciation  of  a 
bull  of  Pope  John  XXIII,  in  which  he  had  granted 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  209 

plenary  indulgences  to  all  who  would  take  part 
in  a  "Crusade"  against  Ladislaw,  king  of  Naples. 
This  bull  Huss  condemned  as  utterly  anti-Christian, 
in  that  it  was  a  summons  to  Christian  men  to  shed 
the  blood  of  their  fellow  Christians,  for  no  other 
fault  than  obedience  to  their  king. 

The  results  of  his  boldness  are  familiar  history — 
the  trial,  excommunication,  and  execution  of  Huss 
at  the  Council  of  Constance.  The  absolute  wicked- 
ness of  the  ecclesiastical  injustice  was  well  illustrated 
in  the  violation  of  Huss's  safe  conduct,  issued  for 
the  purpose  of  luring  him  to  his  fate,  on  the  ground 
that  there  is  no  obligation  on  the  part  of  the  Church 
to  keep  faith  with  a  heretic.  Among  the  monstrous 
charges  of  which  he  was  convicted  was  that  he 
claimed  to  be  a  fourth  person  of  the  Godhead — 
co-equal  with  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Trinity. 

The  martyrdom  of  Huss,  and  the  means  employed 
to  effect  it,  inflamed  the  national  sentiment  of  the 
Bohemians  against  the  Papal  tyranny.  A  revolu- 
tionary movement  was  started  under  the  leader- 
ship of  Zizka.  The  diabolical  persecution  which 
ensued  revived  the  Apocalyptic  spirit  of  despair  so 
that  many  looked  for  the  Apocalyptic  miraculous 
intervention  of  God  to  put  an  end  to  the  reign  of 
anti-Christ. 

The  principles  for  which  the  revolutionists  con- 
tended were  set  forth  in  a  statement  known  as  the 
"Four  Articles"  of  which  we  quote  the  first  and 
third:  "  (i)  That  the  Word  of  God  shall  be  preached 
and  proclaimed  by  Christian  priests  in  the  kingdom 


210    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

of  Bohemia,  freely  and  without  hindrance;  (iii), 
Since  many  priests  and  monks  possess  in  a  worldly 
manner  many  earthly  goods  against  the  command 
of  Christ,  to  the  destruction  of  their  spiritual  office 
and  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  worldly  orders, 
therefore,  that  from  such  priests  this  lordship  (con- 
trary to  the  rules  of  their  Order)  should  be  taken 
away  and  ended,  and  that  they  should  be  led  in 
the  way  of  Christ  to  live  as  models  according  to 
the  Holy  Scriptures."1  It  required  no  less  than 
five  "Crusades,"  the  participants  in  which  received 
full  Papal  indulgences,  to  suppress  this  reforma- 
tory movement  and  to  force  the  tyranny  of  the 
Roman  Catholic  ascendency  upon  an  unwilling 
people,  many  of  whose  descendants  to-day  keep 
alive  a  spirit  of  bitter  resentment. 

VI 

Among  the  most  conspicuous  prophetic  figures 
of  late  mediaeval  history  is  that  of  Savonarola,  the 
prophet  monk  of  the  Florentines.  This  friar  of 
St.  Mark's  was  a  diligent  student  of  the  ancient 
Hebrew  prophets  and  from  their  writings  he  drew 
his  favorite  texts.  He  modeled  his  preaching  upon 
theirs,  denouncing  the  hollowness  of  the  gorgeous 
ceremonial  practices  and  the  evil  lives  and  hypoc- 
risy alike  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  exploiting  priest- 
hood. He  accepted  and  applied  to  himself  the  title 
of  "prophet"  with  a  full  appreciation  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  phrase,  and  though  he  shrank  from  the 
1  Palacky,  vol.  Ill,  part  II,  p.  135  f. 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  211 

prophet's  martyrdom  he  finally  met  it  uncomplain- 
ingly. After  the  example  of  Isaiah  he  undertook 
a  complete  social  and  political  reform  of  Florence. 
Full  justice  has  been  done  him  in  the  classical  work 
of  his  biographer,  Vilari.  Because  of  the  success 
which  attended  his  Florentine  social  reform,  Vilari 
declared  of  him  that  he  "  deserves  to  be  ranked 
among  the  greatest  founders  of  republican  states."  l 
Perhaps  his  whole  teaching  can  be  summarized  by 
a  brief  extract  from  his  fourteenth  sermon  on  "  Lib- 
erty": "The  only  true  liberty  consists  in  the  desire 
for  righteousness  .  .  .  What  liberty  is  there  in 
being  dominated  by  our  own  passions?  .  .  .  Citi- 
zens, would  ye  be  free?  First  of  all,  love  God,  love 
your  neighbor,  love  one  another,  love  the  general 
welfare:  and  if  ye  have  this  love  and  union  among 
you,  true  liberty  will  be  yours."2 

Had  Savanorola  but  included  the  precept  "love 
your  enemies"  and  given  it  a  universal  application, 
he  would  have  here  made  a  complete  summary  of  the 
prophetic  Christian  doctrine. 

VII 

It  is  with  some  hesitation  that  we  connect  the 
''Humanism"  of  the  "Oxford  reformers"  of  1496 
with  the  insurgent  prophetic  movement.  The  trio 
consisting  of  Erasmus,  More  and  Colet  whose  fel- 
low work  has  been  so  charmingly  set  forth  in  See- 

1<4Life  and  Times  of  Girolamo  Savonarola,"  English  trans- 
lation, vol.  I,  p.  301. 

2  Quoted  by  Vilari,  op.  cit.  vol.  I,  p.  338. 

16 


212    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

bohm's  "Oxford  Reformers,"  may  be  character- 
ized as  having  possessed  the  prophetic  theology 
without  the  prophetic  spirit  of  self-sacrifice  in  mili- 
tant devotion  to  the  prophetic  cause.  They  re- 
main mere  idealistic  theorists,  knowing  the  better 
way  but  failing  to  do  it.  The  paradox  is  illustrated 
in  the  title  of  Erasmus'  " Enchiridion"  or  "The 
Handy-Book  of  the  Christian  Soldier."  Erasmus 
described  his  object  in  writing  this  book  as  follows: 
"I  wrote  to  display  neither  genius  nor  eloquence, 
but  simply  for  this,  to  counteract  the  vulgar  errors 
of  those  who  think  that  religion  consists  in  cere- 
monies, in  more  than  Jewish  observances,  while 
they  neglect  what  really  pertains  to  piety.  I  have 
tried  to  teach,  as  it  were,  the  art  of  piety  in  the  same 
way  as  others  have  laid  down  the  rules  of  (military) 
discipline."  But  the  defect  of  this  manual  is  that 
which  we  should  expect  of  a  writer  on  military  tac- 
tics who  had  never  participated  in  a  military  cam- 
paign, or  himself  submitted  to  the  discipline  of 
military  training. 

Thomas  More  in  his  "Utopia"  produced  a  com- 
plete satire  on  the  evils,  political  and  ecclesiastical, 
of  his  time.  He  also  propounded  a  scheme  of  the 
true  organization  of  the  social  order  that  should  be 
founded  upon  the  teachings  of  Jesus.  But  its  very 
title  "Utopia"  showed  that  he  regarded  it  as  an 
impracticable  dream.  He  showed  men  what  was 
the  true  social  program  of  Jesus,  which  Jesus  died 
in  order  to  bring  to  pass,  and  having  drawn  the 
picture  he  practically  abandoned  it  as  useless.      He 


Some  Christian  Insurgent  Prophets  213 

remained  one  who  said  "and  did  not."  He  died 
a  martyr's  death,  not  for  the  cause  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  but  as  a  reactionary  upholding  the  cause  of 
the  Roman  Church  against  a  cause  certainly  worthy 
of  reprobation — that  of  the  sensual  exploiting  king 
Henry  VIII. 

Colet  gave  promise  of  great  prophetic  boldness, 
when  he  denounced  in  St.  Paul's  Cathedral  the 
proposed  invasion  by  Henry  VIII  of  the  soil  of 
France  for  selfish  dynastic  reasons,  but  he  allowed 
the  king  to  trick  him  by  the  shallow  pretense  that 
the  proposed  scheme  of  conquest  was  in  reality  but 
a  far-seeing  measure  of  defense  against  future  in- 
vasions by  France.  This  favorite  device  of  autoc- 
racies of  justifying  campaigns  of  conquest  on  the 
pretext  that  they  are  defensive  measures  has  shown 
remarkable  vitality  in  its  survival  to  the  present 
day,  and  modern  Colets  seem  not  to  be  more  suc- 
cessful in  dealing  with  the  situation. 

We  now  turn  from  this  group  of  theorists  who 
seemed  to  have  had  a  clear  insight  into  the  Chris- 
tianity of  Christ  but  failed  to  apply  it,  to  the  men 
who  identified  Christianity  with  the  Pauline  inter- 
pretation but  took  the  risks  of  putting  this  Chris- 
tianity of  a  secondary  type  to  the  actual  task  of 
reforming  the  Church. 


214    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE    SO-CALLED   REFORMATION 

The  Reformation  of  Luther  and  Calvin  reformed 
the  Church  on  the  basis  of  those  teachers'  inter- 
pretation of  Paulinism  which  they  identified  with 
Christianity.  Therein  consisted  its  weakness.  With 
Paul  the  scope  of  religion  was  confined  to  the  cult, 
a  limited,  though  beloved  community.  Therefore 
the  so-called  Reformation  restricted  itself  to  the 
Reformation  of  the  Church  as  its  proper  field.  The 
Christianity  of  Christ  contemplated,  not  the  erec- 
tion of  a  cult  but  the  renovation  of  human  society 
in  its  furthest  reaches  by  incarnating  the  principles 
of  the  prophetic  theology  and  ethic  in  the  body  of 
a  community  co-extensive  with  all  the  interests  of 
mankind.  The  Reformation  of  Luther  and  Calvin 
met  with  a  wide  degree  of  success.  But  there  was 
also  a  contemporary  attempt  at  a  reformation  of 
the  whole  social  order  according  to  the  program  of 
Jesus  in  the  movement  known  as  "Anabaptism." 
This  attempt  failed  and  its  failure  was  brought 
about  by  the  joint  efforts  of  the  older  ecclesiasticism 
and  the  newer  Pauline  ecclesiasticism  of  the  Protes- 
tant Reformers. 

I 

Though,  as  already  said,  the  Reformation  did  not 
succeed  in  reviving  real  Christianity,  yet  it  accom- 
plished much  good  in  a  negative  way  by  making 


The  So- Called  Reformation  215 

inroads  upon  the  monopoly  of  ecclesiastical  author- 
ity and  the  doctrine  which  made  "Divine"  the 
vested  rights  of  Popes,  bishops  and  the  lower  clergy. 
But  it  accomplished  harm  in  that  while  combating 
one  type  of  authority  it  established  another  of  mixed 
value.  The  doctrine  of  the  equal  Divine  inspira- 
tion of  all  parts  of  the  Bible  placed  the  sanction  of 
God  equally  upon  the  exploiting  system  of  the 
priestly  code  and  the  prophetic  message  which  cut 
at  the  root  of  the  priestly  scheme  of  external  con- 
trol of  religion.  This  led  to  a  synthesis  of  irrecon- 
cilable opposites  which  has  been  responsible  for  the 
failure  of  Protestantism  to  attain  a  true  under- 
standing of  the  real  nature  of  Christianity,  and  has 
been  responsible  for  the  multiplication  of  Protestant 
sects.  In  place  of  the  tyranny  of  the  infallible 
Church,  it  placed  the  tyranny  of  priestly  theology 
and  ethics  which  was  given  an  equal  place  with  the 
spiritual  utterances  of  the  representatives  of  the 
prophetic  revelation  of  the  real  Nature  of  God. 
While  it  was  doing  this  it  erected  in  the  place  of 
"the  Divine  right  of  the  hierarchy"  the  "Divine 
right  of  Princes" — a  costly  error  which  has  become 
one  of  the  chief  psychological  sources  of  the  present 
world  war  initiated  to  extend  the  "Divine  right" 
of  its  fanatical  upholder  in  the  modern  Kaiser  to 
cover  a  greater  successor  to  the  "Holy  Roman 
Empire." 

The  Reformation  of  Luther  did  much  to  put  an 
end  to  exploitation  by  the  Church  in  Germany,  but 
Protestantism  became  subservient  to  the  secular 


216    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

exploiting  classes  and  became  partaker  with  them 
in  the  blood  of  the  prophets  of  real  religion. 

The  exploitations  by  the  Roman  Church  which 
had  for  centuries  been  extending  its  machinery  of 
exactions,  realizing  a  revenue  from  baptisms,  burials, 
marriages,  dispensations,  requiem  masses,  as  well  as 
from  other  sources,  at  length  exploited  the  sale  of 
indulgences  to  a  shameless  and  scandalous  extent. 
It  was  this,  rather  than  any  theological  issue,  which 
at  length  awakened  the  reformatory  zeal  of  Luther 
to  the  publication  of  his  famous  "  Ninety- Five 
Theses"  against  the  practice.  Here  are  a  few  of  the 
popular  doctrines  preached  by  the  peddlers  of  indul- 
gences which  Luther  denounced  and  for  which  he 
was  condemned  by  the  Papal  Court.  ''They  preach 
man,  who  say  that  the  soul  flies  out  of  purgatory  as 
soon  as  the  money  thrown  into  the  chest  rattles."  l 
"Why  does  not  the  Pope  empty  purgatory  for  the 
sake  of  most  holy  charity  and  of  the  supreme 
necessity  of  souls — this  being  the  most  just  of  all 
reasons — if  he  redeem  an  infinite  number  of  souls 
for  the  sake  of  that  most  fatal  thing,  money,  to  be 
spent  on  building  of  basilica  —  this  being  a  very 
slight  reason?"  2  The  irony  of  the  following  was 
well  calculated  to  stir  up  the  wrath  of  those  who 
were  profiting  by  this  traffic:  "Again,  what  is  this 
new  kindness  of  God  and  the  Pope,  in  that,  for 
money's  sake,  they  permit  an  impious  man  and  an 
enemy  to  God,  to  redeem  a  pious  soul  which  loves 

1  Thesis  27. 

2  Thesis  82. 


The  So- Called  Reformation  21J 

God,  and  yet  do  not  redeem  that  same  pious  and 
beloved  soul,  out  of  free  charity,  on  account  of  its 
own  need?"  l  "Christians  should  be  taught  that 
he  who  gives  to  a  poor  man,  or  lends  to  a  needy  man, 
does  better  than  if  he  bought  pardons.  Because, 
by  works  of  charity,  charity  increases,  and  the  man 
becomes  better;  while,  by  means  of  pardons,  he 
does  not  become  better,  but  only  freer  from  pun- 
ishment." 2 

The  chief  power  of  the  Roman  Church  to  exploit 
then  rested,  as  it  still  rests  to-day,  upon  the  super- 
stitious fears  of  men,  carefully  nourished  by  the 
Church's  teachers,  from  the  days  of  childhood,  that 
rescue  from  eternal  hell  depends  upon  docile  obedi- 
ence to  the  dictations  of  the  Church  through  its 
clergy. 

In  the  Pauline  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith 
alone,  Luther  sought  to  set  men  free  from  the  fear 
of  the  ecclesiastical  control  of  their  destinies  by 
placing  the  conditions  of  their  own  salvation  en- 
tirely within  the  reach  of  their  own  acts  of  faith. 
The  acceptance  of  this  doctrine  at  once  liberated 
men  both  from  the  spiritual  and  the  temporal 
exploiting  tyranny  of  the  Church  of  Rome. 

"All  who  believe  in  Christ,"  says  Luther,  "are 
kings  and  priests  in  Christ."  3  As  kings  the  Chris- 
tians are  "the  freest  of  all  men,"  as  priests  they 

1  Thesis  84. 

2  Theses  43  and  44. 

3  Tract  on  Christian  Liberty,  in  "First  Principles  of  the  Ref- 
ormation," Ed.  Horace  Wall,  p.  114. 


218    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

have  a  dignity  far  higher,  "  because  that  by  that 
priesthood  Christians  are  worthy  to  appear  before 
God,  to  pray  for  others,  and  to  teach  one  another 
mutually  the  things  which  are  of  God."  l 

As  all  believers  are  kings  and  priests,  those 
appointed  to  office  and  administration  in  the 
Church,  are  not  called  to  rule,  but  in  a  special 
sense  are  called  to  serve.  The  error  of  the  Roman 
Church  consists  in  having  reversed  this  Divine 
order,  for,  in  the  words  of  Luther,  it  designates  as 
"Pope,  bishop  and  lords,"  those  whom  the  Scrip- 
ture plainly  calls  "ministers,  servants,  and  stew- 
ards." "This  bad  system  has  now  issued  in  such 
a  pompous  display  of  power,  and  such  a  terrible 
tyranny,  that  no  earthly  government  can  be  com- 
pared with  it,  as  if  the  laity  were  something  else 
than  Christians.  Through  this  perversion  of  things, 
it  has  happened  that  the  knowledge  of  Christian 
grace,  of  faith,  of  liberty,  and  altogether  of  Christ, 
has  utterly  perished,  and  has  been  succeeded  by  an 
intolerable  bondage  to  human  works  and  laws;  and, 
according  to  the  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah,  we 
have  become  the  slaves  of  the  vilest  men  on  earth, 
who  abuse  our  misery,  to  all  the  disgraceful  and 
ignominious  purposes  of  their  own  free  will."  2 

The  reformatory  consequences  of  this  doctrine 
may  be  seen  to  follow  easily.  Since  all  believers 
are  the  Church,  those  who  have  arrogated  to  them- 
selves the  office  of  rulers,  when  they  were  intended 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  115. 

2  Op.  cit.  p.  117. 


The  So- Called  Reformation  219 

to  be  but  the  servants  of  all,  must  be  made  to  see 
and  feel  their  error.  As  the  leaders  of  the  Church 
refuse  to  repent  and  reform  themselves,  then  the 
responsibility  falls  upon  the  laity  of  compelling 
them  to  do  so,  no  matter  what  the  threats  or  pre- 
tensions of  the  resisting  officials.  This  line  of 
thought  is  developed  to  its  logical  conclusion  in 
his  "Address  to  the  German  Nobility."  He  sum- 
marized the  situation  in  the  following  words: 

The  Romanists  have,  with  great  adroitness,  drawn 
three  walls  around  themselves,  with  which  they  have 
hitherto  protected  themselves,  so  that  no  one  could 
reform  them,  whereby  all  Christendom  has  fallen  terribly. 

Firstly,  if  pressed  by  the  temporal  power,  they  have 
affirmed  and  maintained  that  the  temporal  power  has  no 
jurisdiction  over  them.  But  on  the  contrary  that  the 
spiritual  power  is  above  the  temporal.  Secondly,  if  it 
were  proposed  to  admonish  them  with  the  Scriptures, 
they  objected  that  no  one  may  interpret  the  Scriptures 
but  the  Pope.  Thirdly,  if  they  were  threatened  with 
a  Council,  they  pretended  that  no  one  may  call  a  Council 
but  the  Pope.1 

Luther  follows  Wycliffe  in  the  belief  that  the 
reformation  of  the  Church  could  be  accomplished 
only  through  the  instrumentality  of  the  secular 
power.  Accordingly,  it  becomes  necessary  for  him 
to  find  moral  grounds  for  this  program.  He  finds 
his  basis  in  the  doctrine  of  the  universal  priesthood 
of  all  believers  and  of  the  Divine  nature  of  the 

1  "  Luther's  Primary  Works,"  edited  by  Henry  Wace,  D.D., 
and  C.  A.  Buchheim,  Ph.D.,  Phil.,  1885,  p.  105. 


220    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

state.  "Forasmuch  as  the  temporal  power  has  been 
ordained  by  God  for  the  punishment  of  the  bad 
and  the  protection  of  the  good,  therefore  we  must 
let  it  do  its  duty  throughout  the  whole  Christian 
body  without  respect  of  persons ;  whether  it  strikes 
Popes,  bishops,  priests,  monks  or  nuns."  l 

Luther  succeeded  in  enlisting  a  large  portion  of 
the  German  nobility  in  his  reformatory  movement. 
But  it  is  doubtful  if  the  sense  of  duty  as  set  forth 
by  Luther  was  a  stronger  element  than  the  desire 
of  the  secular  rulers  and  of  their  subjects  to  be  rid 
of  the  ecclesiastical  vampire  that  was  sucking  the 
blood  from  the  social  and  economic  life  of  the 
German  states.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
Luther  shared  the  Apocalyptic  expectation  that 
the  world  was  soon  to  pass  away  and  be  super- 
seded by  the  coming  of  the  Kingdom  of  Christ 
from  above.  This  view  has  always  paralyzed  the 
efforts  on  the  part  of  men  to  usher  in  the  Kingdom 
of  God  as  futile. 

Luther  regarded  salvation  from  the  purely  per- 
sonal point  of  view,  and  overlooked  entirely  the 
social  meaning  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  This  is  most  clearly  brought  out  in  Luther's 
catechism  in  the  following  questions  and  answers: 

Q.     Thy  kingdom  come,  what  is  that? 

A.  God's  kingdom  assuredly  comes  without  our 
prayers,  but  we  pray  in  this  prayer  that  it  may  come 
to  us. 

Q.     How  does  this  happen? 

1  Op.  cit.  p.  23. 


The  So- Called  Reformation  221 

A.  When  the  heavenly  Father  gives  us  His  Holy 
Ghost  so  that  through  His  grace  we  believe  His  Holy 
Word,  and  live  a  godly  life  here  in  time  and  hereafter 
in  eternity. 

Thus  Luther  transforms  the  Lord's  Prayer  for 
the  coming  of  the  Messianic  Kingdom  to  the  world 
into  a  prayer  for  the  salvation  of  the  individual 
soul,  against  which  quest  Jesus  warned  those 
who  would  be  His  followers.  He  thus  throws  away 
the  pivotal  thought  of  Jesus'  doctrine  of  the  King- 
dom. For  the  same  reason  and  in  like  manner  He 
abandons  the  one  vital  thing  in  the  Absolute  ethic 
of  Jesus,  the  enacting  clause.  In  place  of  this  he 
sanctions  the  principle  of  inconsistency  or  com- 
promise between  Christian  faith  and  practice  in 
the  most  explicit  terms.  "A  Christian  contains 
two  persons,  namely,  a  believing  and  spiritual,  and 
a  civil  or  worldly.  The  believing  endures  all  things, 
does  not  eat  or  drink,  does  not  beget  children,  nor 
concern  himself  with  worldly  matters.  But  the 
civil  person  is  subject  to  worldly  laws,  and  ordi- 
nances, owes  obedience  and  must  defend  and  pro- 
tect its  own  as  the  laws  command."  1 

This  fatal  principle  is  not  far  removed  from  the 
immoral  principle  underlying  the  cultus  that  there 
was  no  connection  between  the  worship  of  God  and 
the  type  of  life  of  the  worshipper.  It  sets  up  the 
fatal  double  standard.     It  is  a  flat  denial  of  the 

Quoted  by  F.  G.  Ward,  "Darstellung  und  Wurdigung  der 
Ansichten  Luthers  von  Staat  und  seinen  Wirtschaftlichen 
Aufgaben,"  p.  16. 


222    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

warning  of  Jesus  "Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mam- 
mon" which  it  paraphrases  and  contradicts  at  the 
same  time  by  the  sentiment,  "A  man  must  serve 
both  God  and  Mammon.  The  spiritual  person 
within  him  is  only  concerned  with  God.  The  civil 
person  within  him  must  serve  mammon."  Thus 
Lutheranism  sanctions  a  principle  fatal  to  the  under- 
standing of  the  primary  demand  of  Jesus  that  the 
whole  man — body,  spirit,  mind  and  will — should  be 
given  to  the  loving  service  of  God  and  brother  man. 
This  fact  explains  why  Lutheranism  accomplished 
its  work  when  it  reformed  the  abuses  of  the  Church 
and  shows  further  why  the  whole  weight  of  the 
influence  of  Luther  is  cast  in  the  way  of  the  pro- 
posal to  reform  the  abuses  of  the  secular  order,  and, 
further,  why  it  must  be  rejected  by  all  who  would 
advance  to  the  complete  reformation  of  the  world's 
life  under  the  leadership  of  Jesus  Christ. 

II 

It  is  not  necessary  to  our  theme  to  point  out 
the  differences  between  Lutheranism  and  Calvin- 
ism in  detail.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  Calvin 
considered  that  the  daily  life  of  the  Christian  man 
should  be  made  to  conform  to  the  law  of  God.  His 
system  was  far  more  favorable  to  democracy  and 
where  Calvinism  has  prevailed  there  has  been  a 
greater  emphasis  laid  upon  civil  liberty  than  where 
Lutheranism  has  had  sway.  But  the  stumbling 
block  of  Calvinism  is  found  in  its  restriction  of 
salvation  to  a  comparatively  small   body  of  the 


The  So-Called  Reformation  223 

elect,  in  its  doctrine  of  predestination  and  in  its 
priestly  theology  which  conceived  of  God  as  a 
capricious  and  arbitrary  Omnipotent  despot.  His 
theology,  therefore,  contradicts  the  universalism  of 
the  prophets  and  of  Jesus  and  so  limits  the  univer- 
sal application  of  the  law  of  love.  For  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  ask  frail  man  to  love  his  enemies 
when  God  hates  His  Own  enemies  with  the  bitter- 
ness of  hell.  Like  Lutheranism  Calvinism  also 
failed  to  revive  the  Christianity  of  Christ. 

Ill 

We  now  turn  to  see  whether  the  English  Ref- 
ormation was  more  successful  in  transcending  the 
limitations  of  the  cult  idea  and  in  recovering  the 
universalism  of  the  true  Christian  theology  and 
ethic. 

In  its  controversy  with  Protestantism,  Anglican- 
ism, through  its  accredited  mouthpieces  the  bishops, 
claims  that  because  of  its  retention  of  the  episcopal 
office  the  Church  of  England  and  its  allied  com- 
munions have  remained  in  unity  with  the  Apostolic 
Church.  It  rejects  many  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
doctrines  and  practices  but  protests  chiefly  against 
the  papacy  as  an  invasion  of  the  final  Apostolic 
rights  and  equality  of  the  College  of  Bishops.  The 
Anglican  Church  and  its  branches  recognize  the 
" validity"  of  the  Roman  Catholic  ministry  and 
the  sacraments,  but  deny  that  quality  to  the 
ministry  and  the  sacraments  of  non-episcopal 
bodies.    Theoretically,  it  is  only  through  the  Holy 


224    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Spirit  transmitted  through  the  hands  of  the  bishop 
that  the  sanction  and  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit 
may  be  secured.  Therefore,  those  who  forsake  the 
society  of  the  bishops,  separate  themselves  from 
the  fellowship  of  the  Apostles  and  so  place  them- 
selves outside  the  bounds  of  the  One,  Holy,  Catholic 
and  Apostolic  Church.  Comparing  this  with  our 
foregoing  study  it  is  at  once  apparent  that  we  have 
the  cult  idea  in  a  very  exclusive  form.  It  pays  no 
regard  to  the  prophetic  idea  that  the  true  relation- 
ship of  the  soul  to  God  is  a  personal  and  moral 
relationship  not  dependent  upon  the  mediation  of 
ecclesiastical  go-betweens.  In  denying  the  doctrine 
of  the  Apostolical  Succession  through  the  bishops 
Protestantism  comes  nearer  to  the  prophetic  prin- 
ciple of  the  freedom  of  the  individual  to  unmediated 
personal  access  to  God.  In  the  light  of  our  investi- 
gations if  our  contention  has  been  maintained  suc- 
cessfully, that  the  Twelve  Apostles  immediately 
after  the  death  of  Jesus  committed  themselves  to  a 
doctrine  of  the  Kingdom  radically  opposed  to  that 
of  their  Master,  the  Apostolical  Succession,  though 
an  established  fact,  would  yet  remain  unrelated  to 
the  program  of  Jesus  and  without  value,  because 
of  the  break  in  continuity  between  the  religion  of 
Jesus  and  that  of  His  earliest  followers. 

But  the  rejection  of  the  Historic  Episcopate  by 
many  English-speaking  Christians  at  the  time  of 
the  Reformation  was  not  so  much  due  to  the 
theoretical  consideration  as  to  the  Protestant  prin- 
ciple formulated  in  the  words  of  the  late  Father 


The  So-Called  Reformation  225 

Tyrrell:  "There  can  be  no  Apostolical  Succession 
apart  from  Christlikeness  of  character." 

A  study  of  some  of  the  Puritan  attacks  upon  the 
Anglican  Episcopate  shows  that  they  did  not  base 
their  rejection  of  the  bishops  upon  the  theoretical 
view  that  the  episcopate  was  not  founded  on 
Scripture,  but  on  the  ground  that  the  fruits  of  the 
lives  of  the  then  bishops  were  incompatible  with 
their  claim  that  the  authority  which  they  repre- 
sented had  its  source  in  a  commission  of  Jesus.1 

The  English  Reformation  as  it  was  finally  accom- 
plished in  Anglicanism  was  UA  Reformation  from 
Above" — originating  with  the  monarch.  Parallel 
with  this  there  was  undoubtedly  a  strong  demo- 
cratic reformatory  movement  following  the  lines 
of  Continental  Protestantism.  Its  adherents  for 
the  most  part  ultimately  separated  from  the  estab- 
lished Church. 

1  For  the  material  that  follows  I  am  indebted  to  the  graduating 
thesis  as  yet  in  MS.  form,  of  the  Rev.  T.  M.  Griffith,  a  graduate 
of  the  Rochester  Theological  Seminary,  entitled  "The  Eliza- 
bethan Episcopate,  an  Historical  Survey,  and  a  Study  of  Martin 
Marprelate's  Charges  against  the  Bishops."  Among  others  he 
quotes  from  the  following  sources,  John  Petheram,  "An  Epistle 
to  the  Terrible  Priests  of  a  Convocation  House"  (1843),  (a 
reprint),  and  "An  Epitome  of  the  first  book  of  Dr.  John  Bridge's" 
"Defense  of  the  Church  of  England  in  Ecclesiastical  Matters" 
(1843),  (a  reprint),  "Hay  Any  Work  for  Cooper"  (1845),  (a 
reprint),  "An  Almond  for  a  Parrot"  (1846),  (a  reprint),  "A 
Pap  with  a  Hatchet"  (1844),  (a  reprint).  Edward  Arber, 
"Early  English  Reprints,"  reprints  I  and  II,  English  Scholars' 
Library,  1878.  William  Pierce,  "The  Martin  Marprelate  Tracts" 
(1911). 


226    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  claim  that  the 
Apostolical  Succession  passed  from  the  Roman 
Catholic  consecrators  to  their  Anglican  successors, 
the  Episcopal  Succession  of  exploitation  seems  not 
at  this  time  to  have  been  broken. 

The  Anglican  bishops  assumed  a  position  of  hos- 
tility toward  those  of  the  Roman  obedience.  Each 
denied  the  other's  claim  to  jurisdiction.  But  both 
kinds  looked  alike  to  the  Protestant.  The  Anglican 
bishops,  in  the  words  of  the  "Martinist"  were 
"  petty  anti-Christs,  petty  popes,  proud  prelates, 
intolerable  with  standards  of  the  Reformation, 
enemies  of  the  Gospel  and  most  covetous  wretched 
priests."  1 

Shakespeare  with  the  insight  of  genius,  makes 
Cardinal  Woolsey,  on  his  downfall,  lament  that 
he  had  not  served  his  God  with  half  the  zeal  that 
he  had  served  his  king.  He  had  been  setting  a 
precedent  which  seems  to  have  been  followed  by 
the  Elizabethan  bishops  who  appear  to  have  been 
not  only  the  appointees  but  also  the  tools  of  the 
crown.  To  this  Froude  bears  witness  that  Eliza- 
beth in  her  choice  of  bishops  "preferred  persons 
whom  she  could  sound  from  their  lowest  note  to 
the  top  of  their  compass,  and  she  accepted  moral 
defects  in  consideration  of  spiritual  complacency."  2 
If  they  had  grave  faults  her  power  over  them  was 
the  greater  for  she  could  threaten  to  depose  them. 
Among  them  were  many  "Calvinists  or  Lutherans 

1  "Epistle  to  the  Terrible  Priests,"  p.  6. 

2  Froude's  "History  of  England,"  vol.  12,  p.  22. 


The  So -Called  Reformation  227 

with  no  special  reverence  for  the  office  they  had 
undertaken;  and  she  treated  them  in  turn  with 
studied  contempt.  She  called  them  'Doctors'  as 
the  highest  title  to  which  she  considered  them  to 
have  any  real  right ;  and  if  they  showed  themselves 
officious  in  punishing  Catholics  she  brought  them 
up  with  a  sharp  reprimand;  and  if  their  Protestant- 
ism was  conspicuously  earnest  they  were  deposed 
and  imprisoned."  l  Archbishop  Parker,  the  Pri- 
mate of  the  whole  Church,  seems  to  have  been  a 
model  of  exploitation.  Of  him  Froude  says,  "He 
had  been  corrupt  in  the  distribution  of  his  own 
patronage,  and  he  sold  his  interest  to  others.  No 
Catholic  prelate  in  the  old  easy  times  had  more 
flagrantly  abused  the  dispensation  system.  Every 
year  he  made  profits  by  admitting  children  to  the 
cure  of  souls  for  money.  He  used  a  graduating 
scale  in  which  the  price  of  inducting  an  infant  into 
a  benefice  varied  with  age,  children  under  fourteen 
not  being  inadmissible  if  the  adequate  fees  were 
forthcoming."  2 

Practically  all  the  charges  made  against  the 
bishops  and  their  clergy  by  William  Langland  in 
the  fourteenth  century  were  now  made  by  the 
Puritans  in  the  sixteenth.  The  Protestants  were 
oppressed  and  suffered  imprisonment,  as  true  sons 
of  the  prophets.  The  ecclesiastics,  abusing  their 
civil  powers,  were  the  successors  of  those  who  had 
persecuted  the  prophets. 

1  Froude,  op.  cit.  vol.  12,  p.  568. 

2  Froude,  op.  cit.  vol.  11,  p.  100. 

17 


22%    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

In  short,  the  English  Reformation  appears  not  so 
much  as  a  religious  Reformation  as  an  internal  con- 
flict for  the  control  of  the  ecclesiastical  political 
machine.  The  English  episcopate  was  a  veritable 
exploiting  ecclesiastical  autocracy  and  later  Charles 
I  recognized  that  his  own  Autocracy  and  that  of 
the  bishops  stood  or  fell  together. 

To-day  high  Anglicans  declare  that  Protestant- 
ism, because  of  the  lack  of  the  episcopal  order,  is 
"of  men,"  whereas  they  assert  Catholicism  to  be 
"of  God"  because  of  the  unbroken  succession  of 
bishops  which  it  maintains.  Judging  them  "by 
their  fruits"  the  Puritans  believed  that  the  bishops 
held  their  office  not  from  God  but  from  men. 
Whatever  the  final  verdict  of  history  we  may 
plainly  see  that  the  bishops  exercised  such  secular 
lordship  as  the  Gentiles  used  and  even  yet  in  Eng- 
land their  palaces  and  endowments  and  their  title 
of  "my  Lord"  are  felt  by  the  common  people  out- 
side the  Anglican  Church  to  represent  more  truly 
their  actual  status  than  the  claim  which  is  put 
forward  in  their  behalf  to  be  servants  of  God  and 
of  the  common  people. 

IV 

Though  Lutheranism  and  Calvinism  put  Paulin- 
ism  in  place  of  the  Christianity  of  Jesus,  and  though 
Anglicanism  maintained  the  idea  of  the  exclusive 
cult  and  gloried  in  it,  yet  the  true  Spirit  of  Jesus 
was  leading  some  of  the  more  radical  reformers,  and 
His  movement  might  have  come  to  its  own  among 


The  So- Called  Reformation  229 

certain  of  the  so-called  Anabaptists,  had  His  Cause 
not  been  crucified  afresh  in  the  violent  suppression 
of  these  true  Christians. 

The  Anabaptists  started  from  the  fundamental 
precept  of  the  prophetic  theology,  that  the  Spirit 
of  God  comes  to  every  man  to  guide  him  into  the 
truth  and  to  sustain  him  in  righteous  conduct.  In 
place  of  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and  in  place 
of  the  authority  of  the  letter  of  the  Scripture,  they 
rejected  all  external  authority  except  the  direct 
teachings  of  Jesus  Himself  as  found  in  the  Gospels 
and  as  interpreted  and  applied  in  the  individual 
case  by  the  Holy  Spirit.1 

The  aptly  named  Zwickau  prophets,  speaking  out 
of  their  own  religious  experience,  told  of  an  inner 
life,  of  a  knowledge  of  God  and  friendship  with 
Him.  For  them  the  starting  point  was  the  Gospel 
which  Jesus  proclaimed  from  the  outset  of  His 
ministry — faith  and  repentance  toward  God.  Their 
original  leaders  seemed  to  have  been  Max  Stiibner, 
Nicolaus  Storch  and  Thomas  Miinzer.  The  two 
latter  were  Bohemians  and  so  of  the  country  which 
had  produced  its  share  of  prophets  in  the  fourteenth 
century.  Miinzer  was  in  priest's  orders,  "They 
agreed  with  the  rest  of  the  reformers  that  the 
standard  of  truth  was  the  Bible,  and  that  all  things 

1  An  admirable  history  of  this  movement  is  found  in  Richard 
Heath's  "Anabaptism,  from  its  rise  in  Zwickau  to  its  fall  in 
Miinster,"  1521  to  1536,  London,  Alexander  &  Shepheard, 
Furnival  Street,  Holborn,  1895,  to  which  I  acknowledge  indebt- 
edness. 


230    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

must  be  reformed  by  the  Word  of  God ;  but  no  one, 
they  contended,  could  rightly  understand  the  Scrip- 
tures unless  he  was  taught  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  To 
every  one  a  measure  of  that  Spirit  was  given,  but 
only  to  those  who  faithfully  listened  to  its  Voice 
in  their  hearts  would  light  arise  as  to  the  true 
meaning  of  the  Scriptures.  And  only  those  would 
effect  a  reformation  who  were  obedient  to  the  com- 
mands of  Christ." 1 

Here  at  last  reformers  begin  to  appear  who  go 
back  of  Paulinism,  which  concerns  itself  only  with 
the  internal  life  of  the  cult,  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
Himself  which  concern  the  organization  of  the  life 
of  mankind. 

Munzer  began  by  taking  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  as  a  program.  He  taught  that  on  this  as  a 
basis  the  real  religion  of  Christ  demanded  a  com- 
plete reorganization  of  society  and  of  state  as  well 
as  of  the  Church,  into  a  democracy  wholly  ani- 
mated by  love  and  the  law  of  service.  The  true 
significance  of  the  real  message  of  Anabaptism  has 
been  obscured  by  the  emphasis  laid  upon  the  doc- 
trine of  adult  baptism.  But  a  little  reflection  will 
enable  us  to  understand  why  they  regarded  infant 
baptism  as  a  corruption.  They  must  have  refused 
to  believe  the  Romish  doctrine  that  unbaptized 
infants  go  to  hell.  They  could  find  no  warrant  for 
it  in  Scripture.  Moreover,  as  baptism  was  the  out- 
ward symbol  of  repentance  they  could  not  see  how 
infants  could  repent  before  they  had  knowledge 
1  Heath,  op.  cit.  p.  2. 


The  So- Called  Reformation  231 

and  experience  of  sin.  Apparently  the  Church  was 
full  of  men  and  women  baptized  in  infancy  who 
were  living  lives  contrary  to  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
without  any  reproach  of  conscience  or  serious  effort 
after  real  amendment.  The  truth  was  apparent 
that  baptism  had  ceased  to  be  what  it  had  been 
in  the  New  Testament,  a  symbol  of  death  unto  a 
life  of  sin  and  a  rising  again  into  a  life  of  righteous- 
ness, and  admission  into  a  movement  of  men  ready 
to  give  their  lives  in  the  warfare  of  Christ's  King- 
dom. Instead,  baptism  had  become  a  sacramental 
initiatory  rite  into  a  cult,  membership  in  which 
was  supposed  to  guarantee  a  happy  immortality  in 
the  world  beyond,  leaving  its  members  free  in  this 
present  life  to  exploit  their  fellows  and  live  the  life 
like  that  of  the  non-Christian  world.  The  Ana- 
baptists sought  to  give  renewed  significance  to 
baptism  by  making  it  the  sign  of  self-consecration 
to  the  Cause  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

Luther  combated  their  teachings  and  it  is  most 
interesting  to  note  that  in  doing  so  he  was  forced  to 
fall  back  upon  something  he  had  formerly  rejected, 
the  authority  of  the  Church  and  the  consensus  of 
all  Christians.  Before  he  had  met  the  prophets  he 
wrote  to  Melanchthon  in  June  17,  1552,  in  substance 
as  follows: 

So  far  he  had  heard  nothing  of  these  preachers  but 
what  Satan  might  say  and  do.  Let  them  prove  their 
mission  either  by  authority  from  the  Church,  or  by 
miracles.  How  do  they  know  that  children  do  not 
believe?     Faith   is  not    always  active,   as  for  example, 


2^2    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

when  we  are  asleep.  Besides,  may  not  the  faith  of  others 
be  efficacious  on  their  behalf?  The  universal  agreement 
of  the  whole  Church  about  infant  baptism  is  a  miracle; 
even  the  heretics  acknowledge  it."     etc.,  etc.1 

As  the  Zwickau  prophets  could  get  no  hearing 
from  the  reformers  and  as  the  ruling  classes  were 
deaf  to  their  arguments  taken  from  Scripture  (for 
even  the  Lutheran  nobles  did  not  accept  the  author- 
ity of  Scripture  teaching  where  it  conflicted  with 
their  own  class  interests),  it  was  perhaps  inevitable 
that  as  the  movement  gained  impetus  it  should 
become  actively  revolutionary.  The  peasant  ad- 
herents of  these  leaders  relied  for  a  time  upon  the 
good  faith  of  the  Protestant  reformers.  The 
"Twelve  Articles"  which  they  drew  up  setting 
forth  their  social  rights  as  drawn  from  the  Scripture 
ended  with  this  final  Article: 

If  any  of  these  Articles  are  contrary  to  the  Scriptures 
we  will  renounce  them,  or,  if  any  in  accordance  with  the 
Scriptures  have  been  omitted  we  hold  ourselves  bound  to 
accept  and  maintain  them.  The  peace  of  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  every  one.    Amen. 

But  Luther  ignored  the  challenge  of  their  appeal 
to  Scriptural  authority,  knowing  in  advance,  per- 
haps, that  they  had  the  best  of  the  argument.  He 
kept  silent  till  at  length  the  peasants,  animated  by 
a  spirit  of  zealotism  sought  by  force  of  arms  to  win 
their  liberty.  Then  a  very  little  demon  of  the 
pagan  Furor  Teutonicus  took  possession  of  him  and 

1  Heath,  op.  cit.  p.  5. 


The  So- Called  Reformation  233 

he  wrote  with  savage  "ruthlessness,"  "In  the  case 
of  an  insurgent  every  man  is  both  judge  and  execu- 
tioner. Therefore,  whoever  can  should  knock  down, 
strangle,  and  stab  all  such,  privately  or  publicly, 
and  think  nothing  so  venomous,  pernicious  and 
devilish  as  an  insurgent.  ...  It  may  happen 
that  he  who  is  on  the  side  of  the  authorities  may  be 
killed.  But  if  he  fought  with  the  conscientiousness 
spoken  of,  he  is  a  true  martyr  before  God.  .  .  . 
On  the  other  hand,  that  which  perishes  on  the 
peasant  side  is  an  everlasting  hell  brand.  Such 
wonderful  times  are  these,  that  a  Prince  can  merit 
Heaven  better  with  bloodshed  than  another  with 
prayer."  l 

Here  the  fanatical  Luther  exhibiting  the  Apoca- 
lyptic frenzy  of  hatred  against  those  whom  he 
regarded  as  enemies  speaks  with  the  authority  of  a 
Pope  organizing  so-called  "Crusades"  against  re- 
bellious Catholics  and  heretics,  and  promises  the 
equivalent  of  plenary  indulgences  to  those  whose 
piety  is  shown  in  slaying.  Alas,  that  the  Lutheran 
spirit  of  ruthlessness  did  not  die  with  him!  Prot- 
estant and  Catholic  armies  united  to  stamp  out 
this  "evil"  in  which  between  one  hundred  and  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  peasants  lost  their  lives 
fighting  for  liberty  which  by  the  standards  of 
Luther's  infallible  Scriptures  they  were  entitled  to 
enjoy. 

We  have  classified  the  Zwickau  prophets  and 
their  followers  with  the  Anabaptists,  but  perhaps 
1  Quoted  by  Heath,  op.  cit.  p.  20, 


234    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

this  title  should  properly  be  reserved  for  those 
pacifists  whose  movement  arose  in  Zurich  under 
the  leadership  of  Wilhelm  Reabali,  Konrad  Grebel 
and  Simon  Stump,  who  separated  themselves  from 
the  reformer  Zwingli.  They  refused  to  baptize 
infants  and  formed  a  new  religious  community 
founded  upon  the  effort  to  practice  the  ethics  of 
Jesus.  They  baptized  each  other  (not  by  immer- 
sion, however),  and  thus  began  a  short-lived  sepa- 
rate Church.  They  had  in  the  main  the  same 
beliefs  as  those  of  the  Zwickau  prophets  about  the 
inner  life,  adding  as  an  essential  part  of  their  pro- 
gram the  practice  of  non-resistance  based  upon  the 
Commission  of  Jesus  to  the  Twelve.  They  held 
(quite  truly  it  would  appear)  that  true  Christians 
are  in  the  world  like  sheep  among  wolves.  They 
pledged  themselves  on  no  account  to  defend  them- 
selves from  enemies  or  avenge  wrongs  done  to  them- 
selves. The  exploiting  classes  must  have  felt  grave 
alarm  at  this  sudden  manifestation  of  real  Chris- 
tianity. If  it  continued  to  spread  it  would  revolu- 
tionize the  whole  civilized  order.  Therefore,  they 
were  persecuted  alike  by  Protestants  and  Catho- 
lics, by  the  ecclesiastical  and  secular  rulers  who 
eagerly  accepted  the  role  of  the  wolves. 

In  1526  by  edict  the  Zurich  Rath  (Protestant) 
threatened  with  death  by  drowning  all  who  were 
baptized  anew.  Three  years  later  the  Catholic  Em- 
peror Charles  V  ordered  all  Anabaptists  wherever 
found  to  be  put  to  death  by  fire  or  sword  without  even 
the  form  of  a  trial.     Many  were  cast  into  prison 


The  So-Called  Reformation  235 

and  met  death  at  the  stake  or  by  drowning.  Sebas- 
tian Frank  asserts  that  the  number  of  these  truly 
Christian  martyrs  had  reached  two  thousand  by 
the  year  1530. 

In  all  these  persecutions  they  showed  the  spirit 
of  Jesus'  exhortation:  "Rejoice  and  be  exceeding 
glad,  for  so  persecuted  they  the  prophets  which 
were  before  you."  As  the  Polish  Cardinal,  the 
Bishop  of  Warmice,  wrote  of  them : 

"They  are  far  readier  than  the  followers  of  Luther  and 
Zwingli  to  meet  death,  and  bear  the  hardest  tortures  for 
their  faith.  For  they  run  to  suffer  punishments,  no 
matter  how  horrible,  as  if  to  banquet."    .    .    -1 

Having  seen  the  fate  of  these  true  adherents  of 
the  prophetic  program  of  Jesus  at  the  hands  of  His 
nominal  adherents,  it  remains  to  examine  the  in- 
ternal organizations  as  they  were  given  the  short- 
lived opportunity  to  work  them  out.  Their  best 
opportunity  was  found  in  Moravia  which  early 
became  a  refuge  for  the  Anabaptists  and  remained 
so  till  the  year  1526  when  the  Province  fell  to  the 
rule  of  the  House  of  Austria,  when  their  protection 
was  withdrawn.  Here  in  a  brief  space  they  worked 
out  their  community  ideas. 

There  were  here,  at  one  time,  eighty-six  "house- 
holds," 

Under  the  system  which  Hutter  is  mainly  credited  with 
developing,  there  was  over  each  household  one  who  took 

1  Quoted  in  Encyl.  Brit.  Article  "Anabaptists." 


236    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

the  general  superintendence,  who  was  called  the  "house- 
holder." With  him  were  a  number  of  persons  called 
"ministers  of  the  necessities."  Each  household  had  a 
common  kitchen,  common  bakehouse,  common  brew- 
house,  a  common  room  for  child-birth,  a  common  school- 
house,  another  room  for  mothers  with  young  infants, 
and  a  common  nursery  in  which  the  community  sisters 
looked  after  the  children.  Other  sisters  attended  on  the 
sick.  The  old  people  were  cared  for  with  even  more  pains 
and  attention  than  the  young,  who  were  strictly  kept 
from  the  world,  no  mixed  marriages  being  allowed.  No 
idler  was  permitted  in  the  community.  The  meals  were 
common  but  each  family  had  its  own  rooms.  In  the 
morning,  after  silent  prayer,  they  all  went  to  work,  some 
in  the  fields,  others  in  the  workshops.  They  put  their 
wages  into  a  common  box,  which  was  under  the  care  of  a 
treasurer.  Frugal  living  and  assiduous  working  brought 
wealth.  The  communities  came  to  have  lands,  machinery 
and  shops.  But  their  property  was  not  used  simply  for 
the  benefit  of  the  particular  community  that  had  earned 
it,  but  for  the  whole  body  of  baptized  believers.  Vice 
was  practically  unknown;  if  any  evils  did  arise  the  only 
punishments  resorted  to  were  public  reproof,  suspension 
of  the  communion  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and  finally, 
exclusion  from  the  community. 

It  is  said  that  the  Moravian  communities  at  this  time 
numbered  seventy  thousand  persons.  They  refused  no 
one  on  account  of  poverty,  if  he  gave  evidence  of  being 
born  again.    Their  emissaries  went  in  all  directions.1 

By  a  royal  edict  in  1535  King  Ferdinand  ordered 
the  Anabaptists  expelled  and  the  Moravian    Diet 
agreed.    Hutter,  their  great  organizer,  was  tortured 
1  Heath,  op.  cit.  pp.  69,  70. 


The  So-Called  Reformation  237 

and  burned  in  public  in  Innsbruck  on  the  24th  of 
February,  1536. 

Thus  once  again  the  Spirit  of  Jesus  seeking  to 
incarnate  Itself  in  the  whole  life  of  a  community 
was  quenched  in  a  baptism  of  blood  and  fire  by 
those  who  held  their  victims  to  be  "heretics"  and 
themselves  to  be  true  adherents  of  the  Church  of 
Christ. 


238    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   RECOVERY   OF   A   LOST    CHRISTIANITY 

Truth  forever  on  the  scaffold,  wrong  forever  on  the 

throne, 
Yet  that  scaffold  sways  the  future,  and,  behind  the 

dim  unknown, 
Standeth  God  within  the  shadow,  keeping  watch  above 

His  Own. 

We  turn  from  the  tragic  picture  of  truth  upon 
the  scaffold  to  the  future  vision  of  that  truth  upon 
the  throne.  Truth  crucified,  defeated,  rises  ever 
again  from  the  tomb  and  ascends  to  the  Right 
Hand  of  God  to  return  again  to  establish  the  ever- 
lasting reign  of  the  Republic  of  God.  Though  men 
and  nations  may  again  and  again  put  God  out  of 
their  hearts  and  lives  yet  mankind  is  continually 
drawn  by  its  supreme  highest  need  to  return  to  God. 
Mankind  has  always  felt  and  always  will  feel  the 
need  of  God.  If  a  man  rejects  the  Living  God  he 
enthrones  some  idol  of  his  own  in  the  void.  Even 
the  lowest  materialist  does  this,  and  the  lowest 
type  of  materialist  is  the  mammon-worshipper, 
the  man  who  translates  the  highest  ideals  of  life, 
religion,  patriotism  and  art — into  terms  of  com- 
mercialism or  exploitation.  All  exploiters  are  in 
essence  idolaters,  whose  God  is  the  foe  of  the  Liv- 
ing God. 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  239 

I 

A  system  of  thought  or  a  u Lebensanschauung" 
may  become  an  idol  placed  on  the  altar  of  an  indi- 
vidual's or  a  nation's  life  driving  out  the  Shekinah 
of  God.  Such  a  system  of  thought  is  found  in 
materialistic  neo- Darwinism.  This  creed  is  the 
chief  modern  intellectual  antagonist  of  the  true 
Christian  doctrine.  Let  us  for  a  moment  contrast 
them.  Christianity  teaches  that  men  are  in  reality 
spiritual  beings.  Each  individual,  however  fettered 
to  an  evolving  animal  organism,  has  a  transcendent, 
eternal  value.  Each  man,  however  submerged,  is 
1 '  an  eternal  differentiation  of  the  Absolute. ' '  Chris- 
tianity teaches  "  the  potential  equality  of  all  spirits." 
The  great  heresy  is  the  denial  of  this  doctrine  whether 
by  precept  or  by  practice.  Therefore,  the  wilful 
subordination  of  the  weaker  by  the  stronger  (exploi- 
tation) is  the  chief  deadly  sin.  The  neo-Darwinian 
theory  holds  the  opposite.  Weak  individuals  and 
weak  peoples  exist  to  be  used,  dominated  and  ex- 
ploited by  the  strong.  This  is  a  modern  analogue 
of  the  tribal  idea  that  God  has  a  few  favorites  and 
those  not  His  favorites  exist  only  for  fthe  benefit  of 
the  "  chosen  people." 

While  rejecting  all  traditional  religions,  modern 
leaders  of  thought,  particularly  in  Germany,  have 
revived  the  equivalent  of  the  ancient  tribal  cults. 
This  point  of  view  is  clearly  brought  out  in  the  fol- 
lowing quotation : 

The  creed  of  the  Allmacht  of  a  natural  selection,  based 


240    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

on  violent  struggle,  is  the  Gospel  of  the  German  intel- 
lectuals; all  else  is  illusion  and  anathema.    .    .    . 

This  struggle  must  not  only  go  on,  but  it  should  go  on, 
so  that  this  natural  law  may  work  out  in  its  cruel,  inevi- 
table way,  the  salvation  of  the  human  species.  By  its 
salvation  is  meant  its  desirable  natural  evolution.  The 
human  group  which  is  in  the  most  advanced  evolutionary 
stage  as  regards  internal  organization  and  form  of  social 
relationship  is  best,  and  should,  for  the  sake  of  the  spe- 
cies, be  preserved  at  the  expense  of  the  less  advanced, 
the  less  effective.  It  should  win  in  the  struggle  for  ex- 
istence, and  this  struggle  should  occur  precisely  that  the 
various  types  may  be  tested,  and  the  best  not  only  pre- 
served, but  put  in  a  position  to  impose  its  kind  of  social 
organization,  its  Kultur,  on  the  others,  or,  alternatively, 
to  destroy  and  replace  them.1 

II 

The  destiny  of  mankind  will  be  ultimately  de- 
termined by  which  of  these  two  interpretations  of 
life  wins  the  victory  over  the  thought  and  practice 
of  the  human  race.  There  are  no  other  alternatives. 
If  the  Christian  doctrine  of  Heaven  on  earth  does 
not  triumph,  the  evolutionary  doctrine  will  see  to 
it  that  the  past  and  present  Hell  on  earth  shall  be 
perpetuated.  There  can  be  no  middle  ground  be- 
tween the  triumph  of  Heaven  and  the  triumph  of 
Hell,  and  no  soul  can  remain  neutral.  The  neutral 
is  already  an  agent  of  Hell — a  subject  of  the  Em- 
pire of  Evil.     "He  that  is  not  for  us  is  against 

1  Vernon  Kellogg,  "Headquarters  Nights,"  Article  in  Atlantic 
Monthly,  August,  1917. 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  241 

us."  The  neutral  is  the  enemy  of  Christ.  All  the 
prophets  press  for  a  decision.  "  Choose  ye  this  day 
whom  ye  will  serve.  If  Jehovah  (the  God  of  the 
prophets)  be  God,  serve  Him;  if  Baal  (the  God  of 
the  cult  of  the  exploiters)  be  God,  serve  Him."  He 
who  hesitates  is  lost.  "  No  man  can  serve  two  mas- 
ters." 

Ill 

The  object  of  this  book  has  been  to  discover  and 
state  just  what  Christianity  is.  In  order  to  do  so 
it  has  been  necessary  to  distinguish  between  "His- 
toric Christianity"  and  the  Christianity  of  the 
Founder.  If  our  quest  has  been  successful  the 
following  facts  have  been  established:  The  world's 
greatest  need  as  in  the  past  so  to-day  is  to  under- 
stand and  follow  the  Christianity  of  Christ.  One 
of  the  younger  leaders  of  American  philosophical 
thought  recently  expressed  to  me  the  conviction 
that  "the  discovery  and  statement  of  what  Chris- 
tianity really  is,  is  the  most  important  service 
which  a  man  can  render  the  world  to-day." 

Christianity  is  not  the  religion  of  a  cult  but  tran- 
scends all  cults  in  that  it  is  the  ultimate  universal 
world-religion  adapted  to  the  needs  of  every  individ- 
ual and  of  every  race  and  of  the  world  taken  as  a 
whole.  Of  this  religion  various  cults,  large  and 
small,  are  but  "broken  lights."  This  universal 
religion  was  not  the  discovery  of  Jesus.  He  recog- 
nized it  as  having  been  in  the  world  before  Him  and 
as  having  already  been  preached  by  the  prophets. 


242    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

We  have  confined  our  study  to  the  prophets  of 
Israel  because  they  are  in  the  line  of  the  prophetic 
succession  of  Christianity.  The  study  of  compara- 
tive religion  is  teaching  us  that  prophetism  is  not 
confined  to  any  race  of  men.  We  have  now  to  ad- 
mit that  all  true  prophets  are  spokesmen  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  These  true  prophets  may  be  dis- 
cerned by  their  adherence  to  the  following  pro- 
phetic truths : — The  infinite  worth  of  the  individual ; 
the  universal  Fatherhood  of  God ;  and  the  universal 
Divine  Community  embracing  the  potential  equal- 
ity of  all  spirits ;  and  the  ultimate  solidarity  of  God 
and  mankind  in  the  Divine  Community  of  the  King- 
dom of  God.  Wherever  these  truths  are  felt  and 
accepted  there  is  the  Eternal  Logos  of  God,  "the 
Light  which  enlightens  every  man; "  1  there  is  Chris- 
tianity, there  is  the  transcendent  and  immanent 
Christ  Himself.  This  truth  is  embraced  in  the 
universalism  of  Jesus  and  His  statement  "He  that 
is  not  against  us  is  for  us." 

Some  day  the  writings  of  the  prophets  of  the  Far 
East  will  be  gathered  together  in  one  volume  with 
the  prophets  of  the  Near  East  and  of  the  West  into 
a  universal  "Holy  Scripture"  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God,  and  the  spiritual  forces  of  the  ends  of  the  earth 
shall  unite  and  find  universal  recognition  as  the 
Inspired  Word  of  a  world  community  gathered  into 
the  fold  of  the  Great  Shepherd — God. 

1  John  1 :  9  (Moffat's  version). 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  243 

IV 

As  we  have  said  ''Historic  Christianity"  has 
fallen  far  short  of  the  universalism  of  the  Founder. 
Catholicism  by  its  very  name  asserting  a  claim  to 
universalism  has  been  false  to  true  Catholicity  in 
that  it  has  remained  the  theocratic  religion  of  a 
dominating  cult.  Protestantism  passed  over  the 
universal  ethic  and  theology  of  Jesus  to  accept  the 
Pauline  view  of  the  elect.  This  fact  was  not  grasped 
by  the  late  Prof.  Royce  in  his  otherwise  truly  Chris- 
tian contribution,  "The  Problem  of  Christianity."1 

He  takes  the  limited  community  idea  of  St.  Paul 
and  makes  its  application  universal.  Thus  he  sup- 
plements the  Pauline  idea  of  the  community  with 
that  of  Jesus.  In  spite  of  this  fact  Royce  remained 
a  Protestant  in  spirit  though  a  Christian  in  theory. 
This  came  out  in  his  unhappy  bitterness  toward 
the  German  people  after  the  beginning  of  the  world 
war.  His  Protestantism  prevented  him  from  mak- 
ing an  application  of  the  difficult  principle  of  Jesus' 
"Love  your  enemies,"  to  those  whom  he  considered 
the  enemies  of  the  universal  community.  But  in 
regard  to  this  it  is  to  be  said  that  Royce's  abiding 
influence  will  proceed  from  that  which  he  said 
while  on  the  heights  rather  than  from  the  sad  ut- 
terances of  one  in  the  depths  of  disappointed  sorrow. 

The  supernatural  character  of  Christianity  cemes 
out  in  contrast  to  the  best  of  human  philosophy  in  its 
possession  of  undying  hope,  and  men  of  Christian 

1  See  above,  p.  166. 
18 


244   Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

vision  are  seeing  even  in  the  presence  of  this  dark- 
ness strong  reasons  for  hope  that  Christianity,  that 
is,  real  Christianity,  is  about  to  come  into  its  own. 
There  are  two  reasons  which  we  will  now  mention 
both  of  which  appear  paradoxical.  The  first  is  the 
recognition  quite  commonly  made  that  the  Chris- 
tianity of  the  cult  is  not  the  Christianity  of  the 
Founder.  The  colossal  inconsistency  of  nations 
praying  to  the  same  God  for  strength  to  injure 
other  nations  is  clearly  seen.  Also,  the  claim  of 
one  nation  that  God  regards  it  as  His  chosen  people 
provokes  the  derisive  mirth  of  those  who  have  ceased 
to  fear  the  ancient  tribal  God.  The  second  reason 
for  hopefulness  lies  in  that  which  the  adherents  of 
the  cult  have  held  to  be  discouraging,  namely,  the 
loss  of  the  hold  of  the  organized  Christian  bodies 
as  such  on  the  minds  alike  of  intellectual  leaders 
and  of  the  estranged  "masses."  This  would  in- 
deed be  discouraging  if  it  meant  that  men  were  re- 
jecting the  cult  ethic  and  the  cult  theology  and  its 
organized  representatives  because  they  felt  no  need 
of  the  true  God  and  of  the  coming  of  His  Kingdom. 
On  the  contrary,  an  appreciation  of  the  ethic  and 
and  theology  of  Jesus  is  nowhere  more  enlightened 
than  it  is  among  many  who  have  rejected  "Historic 
Christianity."  This  is  the  theme  of  a  book  which 
has  recently  appeared  which  in  spite  of  a  failure  of 
insight  on  important  problems  on  the  part  of  its 
author  nevertheless  expresses  the  central  truth  of 
importance.  The  fact  which  we  have  just  stated 
is  brought  out  in  the  following  quotation  from  H. 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  245 

G.  Wells's  "God  the  Invisible  King,"  quoted  with 
approval  on  the  cover  of  a  recent  number  of  The 
Churchman. 

All  mankind  is  seeking  God.  There  is  not  a  nation 
nor  a  city  in  the  globe  where  men  are  not  being  urged  at 
this  moment  by  the  Spirit  of  God  in  them  towards  the 
discovery  of  God.  This  is  not  an  age  of  despair,  but  an 
age  of  hope  in  Asia  as  in  all  the  world  besides.  The  King- 
dom of  God  on  earth  is  not  a  metaphor,  not  a  mere  spirit- 
ual state,  not  a  dream,  not  an  uncertain  project;  it  is 
the  thing  before  us,  it  is  the  close  and  inevitable  destiny 
of  mankind.  In  but  a  few  centuries  God  will  have  led 
us  out  of  the  dark  forest  of  these  present  wars  and  con- 
fusions into  the  open  brotherhood  of  His  rule.  God 
takes  all.  He  takes  you,  blood  and  bones  and  house  and 
acres,  He  takes  skill  and  influence  and  expectation.  For 
all  the  rest  of  your  life  you  are  nothing  but  God's  agent. 

Mr.  Wells's  chief  defect  is  his  failure  to  discover 
that  the  best  part  of  his  religion  is  but  a  restate- 
ment of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  and  in  his  failure  to  real- 
ize that  we  are  not  merely  the  "  agents,"  but  also 
the  eternal  sons  of  the  everlasting,  ultimately  victo- 
rious and  triumphant  Eternal  God,  Who  is  achiev- 
ing the  infinitude  which  Wells  seems  to  deny  Him. 

V 

The  most  serious  problem  is  what  to  do  with  the 
existing  cults.  They  are  at  present  the  most  diffi- 
cult obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  realization  of  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  This  in  spite  of  the  fact,  per- 
haps because  of  it,  that  they  hold  themselves  to  be 
the  true  and  final  channels  of  the  Kingdom.     They 


246    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

are  competitors  of  the  Kingdom  because  their  ad- 
herents believe  that  the  most  important  thing  they 
can  do  is  to  build  up  the  cult  if  need  be  at  the  ex- 
pense of  all  other  cults.  They  teach  their  adher- 
ents, and  require  their  ministers  to  teach,  that  the 
traditional  theology  which  their  founders  formulated 
is  the  highest  expression  of  theological  truth  and 
when  real  Christianity  arises  to  show  the  falsity  and 
limitations  of  their  interpretations  they  are  ready 
to  cast  it  out,  together  with  its  adherents,  as  hereti- 
cal. The  minister  of  a  Church  instead  of  being 
primarily  a  prophet  of  the  Kingdom  is  a  leader  of 
a  localized  branch  of  his  cult  and  his  first  task  is  to 
extend  its  membership,  its  influence,  and  its  income. 
His  own  success  is  measured  by  the  extent  to  which 
he  can  make  his  parish  or  congregation  prosperous. 

As  the  existing  Churches  are  organized  on  the 
basis  of  an  exploiting  economic  system  and  as  he 
must  win  the  allegiance  of  the  successful  men  of  the 
community,  usually  members  of  exploiting  classes, 
in  order  to  succeed,  the  minister  must  become  the 
beneficiary  of  exploitation.  Either  he  must  break 
with  the  established  order  or  renounce  success,  as 
usually  understood.  He  must  become  a  prophesier 
of  smooth  things,  a  false  prophet,  or  else  risk  such 
dangers  as  have  confronted  the  true  prophets  in  all 
ages,  and  bear  the  odium  of  denominational  disloy- 
alty and  heresy. 

Yet  the  situation  is  not  altogether  hopeless.  Each 
denomination  is  founded,  in  its  own  view,  on  the 
pure  teaching  of  Christ  and  His  Leadership.     The 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  247 

man  who  is  loyal  to  these  is  loyal  to  the  higher  al- 
legiance of  the  cult  itself,  even  though  he  rejects 
the  traditional  interpretation  of  the  cult's  theology. 
It  is  the  duty,  therefore,  of  every  Christian  minister 
to  teach  the  theology  of  Jesus  as  clearly  as  he  may 
be  able  to  comprehend  it,  no  matter  where  it  con- 
flicts with  the  inherited  opinion  of  his  sect.  He 
may  do  this  with  a  better  hope  because  of  the  large 
number  within  all  the  cults  who  have  already  swung 
away  from  and  abandoned  the  inadequate  theology 
of  the  cults'  founders.  The  following  practical  sug- 
gestion of  Royce  is  here  very  much  in  place : 

What  is  practically  necessary,  therefore,  is  this:  Let 
your  Christology  be  the  practical  acknowledgment  of  the 
Spirit  of  the  universal  and  beloved  community.  This 
is  the  sufficient  and  practical  faith.  Love  this  faith, 
teach  this  faith,  preach  this  faith,  in  whatever  words, 
through  whatever  symbol,  by  means  of  whatever  forms 
of  creeds,  in  accordance  with  whatever  practices  you 
find  best  to  enable  you  with  sincere  intent  and  a  whole 
heart  to  symbolize  and  to  realize  the  Spirit  in  the  com- 
munity.1 

Judge  every  social  device,  every  proposed  reform  and 
every  local  enterprise  by  the  one  test:  Does  this  help 
towards  the  coming  of  the  universal  community?  If 
you  have  a  church,  judge  your  own  church  by  this  stand- 
ard; and  if  your  own  church  does  not  yet  fully  meet  this 
standard,  aid  in  reforming  your  church  accordingly. 
If  .  .  .  you  hold  the  true  church  to  be  invisible,  require 
all  whom  you  can  influence  to  help  render  it  visible.2 

1  "The  Problem  of  Christianity,"  vol.  II,  p.  428. 

2  Op.  cit.  vol.  II,  p.  431. 


248    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

The  principle  of  Jesus  "Whoso  seeketh  to  save 
his  life  shall  lose  it,  and  whoso  loseth  his  life  for  My 
sake  and  the  Gospel's,  shall  find  it,"  should  be  taken 
by  the  cults  as  their  immediate  guide.  The  cult 
exists  only  for  the  Kingdom  and  it  should  seek  to 
die,  if  necessary,  in  order  that  its  sacrificial  death 
may  usher  in  the  Kingdom  and  that  it  may  live 
again  as  a  part  of  the  Universal  Community. 

The  failure  of  "Historic  Christianity"  to  realize 
this  goal  has  been  due  to  ' '  the  combined  wayward- 
ness of  the  religious  caprices  of  all  Christian  man- 
kind" (Royce).  One  who  has  had  experience  in 
modern  Church  life  must  feel  that  whereas  way- 
wardness and  caprice  are  still  strong  in  the  cults, 
in  view  of  the  seriousness  of  the  eternal  issues  in- 
volved, it  is  high  time  for  the  cults  to  waive  all 
petty  questions  and  seek  to  lose  their  lives  in  the 
true  Church  of  Christ. 

For  the  true  Church  ...  is  still  a  sort  of  ideal  chal- 
lenge to  the  faithful,  rather  than  an  already  fulfilled 
institution — a  call  upon  men  for  a  heavenly  quest,  rather 
than  a  present  possession  of  humanity.  "Create  me" — 
this  is  the  word  that  the  Church,  viewed  as  an  idea,  ad- 
dresses to  mankind.1 

VI 

Educational  institutions  should  have  a  large 
share  in  contributing  to  the  campaign  of  education 
for  the  spread  of  an  understanding  of  what  Chris- 
tianity really  is.  The  department  of  literature 
should  teach  the  results  of  scientific  literary  criti- 
1  Royce,  op.  cit.  vol.  I,  p.  54. 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  249 

cism  of  Biblical  literature.  The  department  of 
philosophy  should  include  courses  on  the  apprecia- 
tion of  the  intellectual  value  of  a  theology  of  the 
prophets  and  of  Jesus.  The  course  in  ethics  should 
lay  chief  stress  upon  the  universal  absolute  ethics 
of  Jesus.  The  department  of  economics  has  a  won- 
derful opportunity  to  show  how  the  law  of  service 
could  be  made  the  basis  of  economic  life  in  produc- 
tion and  distribution,  and  how  the  present  system 
of  exploitation  could  be  made  to  give  way  to  a  social 
organization  animated  by  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
The  department  of  history  should  present  a  scien- 
tific impartial  account  of  Church  History  and  insti- 
tutions, showing  wherein  they  succeeded  or  failed 
in  expressing  the  underlying  thought  and  Mind 
of  the  Master.  Every  well-equipped  University 
should  have  courses  in  Comparative  Religion  which 
should  aim  to  discover  and  recognize  the  principles 
of  the  universal  religion  wherever  found. 

VII 

The  greatest  opportunities  from  the  educational 
point  of  view  remain  with  the  institutions  of  the 
Christian  family  and  of  the  converted  Christian 
parish  or  congregation.  At  present  parents  with 
liberal  views  hesitate  to  teach  their  convictions 
about  religion  to  their  children  out  of  a  false  rever- 
ence for  the  traditional  orthodox  views  which  they 
themselves  have  rejected.  The  opportunity  of 
the  father  and  mother  is  vast  when  we  recall  that 
they  deal  with  those  who  are  by  nature  members 


250    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  In  teaching  religion 
to  their  children  parents  should  also  remember  the 
advice  of  Jesus  to  learn  about  the  Kingdom  from  the 
children  themselves.  This  will  teach  them  the 
proper  reverence  for  childhood  which  must  lie  at 
the  basis  of  every  happy  family  life. 

The  educational  opportunities  of  the  converted 
parish  church  or  congregation  are  almost  as  great. 
We  already  have  churches  which  gladly  welcome 
the  preaching  of  the  " Social  Gospel."  At  present 
this  is  generally  rather  tolerated  than  taken  as  a 
practical  program  of  the  parish  life.  The  "  Social 
Service"  of  the  parish  in  the  main  is  usually  con- 
fined to  the  employment  of  a  staff  of  paid  social 
workers,  "Parish  Visitors,"  "Visiting  Nurses," 
and  the  like.  What  is  needed  is  an  application  of 
this  principle  to  the  total  parish  life.  The  social 
Gospel  of  the  prophets  and  Jesus  should  be  dis- 
criminatingly taught  in  the  Sunday  Schools,  and 
the  laity  should  recognize  the  demands  which  that 
Gospel  makes  upon  them  in  the  effort  toward  the 
purifying  and  reorganizing  of  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity. The  prophetic  Gospel  was  a  "lay  Gospel." 
It  consists  not  merely  in  words  or  ceremonial  acts 
but  in  a  life  of  service.  It  demands  not  merely 
"sayers"  but  "doers."  The  laity  are  those  who 
must  finally  abolish  the  evils  of  exploitation  and 
reorganize  our  economic  system  on  the  basis  of  serv- 
ice. The  Churches  can  only  continue  to  survive  if 
they  contribute  to  a  new  and  final  reformation  not 
restricted  to  the  idea  of  the  Church  itself  as  a  sepa- 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  251 

rate  institution,  not  even  restricted  to  the  idea  of 
organized  Christianity  saving  itself  by  pooling  its 
interests  in  one  great  unified  religious  cult,  but  a 
reformation  contemplating  the  whole  program  of 
Jesus  Christ  for  world  redemption. 

VIII 

One  portion  of  the  Church's  opportunity  for 
serving  the  interests  of  the  community,  it  has  ap- 
preciated perhaps  better  than  the  rest,  namely, 
the  moulding  of  the  individual  life  through  teaching 
men  to  pray — both  privately  and  in  common  wor- 
ship. Prayer  concerns  the  very  well-springs  of 
life  and  character.  It  is  the  primary  means  of  at- 
taining the  God-consciousness  apart  from  which 
there  would  be  no  basis  for  the  hope  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God,  but  even  in  this  department  the  Church 
can  render  far  greater  service  than  ever  in  the  past, 
by  making  its  services  conform  to  the  larger  vision 
of  the  real  teaching  of  Christ  and  bringing  it  into 
conscious  relationship  with  the  coming  of  the  King- 
dom. To  do  this  it  requires  nothing  more  than  to 
interpret  and  extend  its  universal  model  the  "Lord's 
Prayer."  Men  put  the  highest  and  best  of  them- 
selves into  prayer.  They  must  extend  this  into 
the  life  of  the  community.  The  ideal  is  expressed 
as  the  movement  to  incarnate  the  Spirit  of  Jesus 
in  humanity  beginning  with  the  smaller  units  of 
the  community  and  extending  that  Spirit  by  the 
leavening  process  till  the  whole  of  mankind  is  trans- 
formed into  the  Body  of  Christ, 


252    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

IX 

So  far  but  little  has  been  said  on  the  question  of 
individual  immortality.  This  doctrine  is  found 
only  by  implication  in  the  teachings  of  the  prophets 
and  is  but  little  stressed  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
This  contrasts  with  the  attitude  of  the  Mystery 
Cults  whether  Greek  or  Christian  which  make  the 
achievement  of  a  happy  immortality  the  first  object 
of  their  quest. 

Jesus  warned  men  against  this  quest  as  liable 
to  defeat  its  own  end.  Yet  His  thought  becomes 
utterly  unintelligible  unless  the  doctrine  of  individ- 
ual immortality  is  recognized  as  everywhere  under- 
lying His  teaching.  It  is  inseparable  from  the  doc- 
trine of  the  infinite  value  of  the  individual  man. 
Once  this  idea  is  acted  upon,  a  belief  in  immortality 
becomes  natural  and  inevitable  instead  of  being  an 
effort  to  trust  "the  larger  hope."  One  reason  why 
the  quest  for  immortality  is  not  stressed  by  Jesus 
is  because  He  believed  it  the  present  possession  of 
all  men. 

The  doctrine  of  immortality  is  obscured  and 
weakened  by  our  common  social  practices  in  treat- 
ing men  as  objects  to  be  exploited.  As  it  was  a 
principle  of  the  Kantian  ethic  always  to  treat  hu- 
manity as  a  person  and  never  as  a  thing,  much  more 
was  it  the  underlying  precept  of  the  ethics  of  Jesus. 
Men  who  live  up  to  this  cannot  doubt  immortality. 
It  will  become  a  perfectly  natural  and  spontaneous 
belief  on  the  part  of  all  men  in  a  community  which 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  253 

treats  individuals  as  immortal  and  not  as  mere 
wheels  or  parts  in  an  economic  machine. 

One  aspect  of  the  aspiration  after  immortality 
is  the  ambition  of  men  to  achieve  greatness. 

The  quest  for  greatness  and  the  leaving  behind 
of  an  immortal  name  has  too  commonly  followed 
the  line  of  ambitious  exploitation.  It  has  sought 
the  greatness  of  the  individual  through  the  subor- 
dination of  other  individuals.  The  folly  and  empti- 
ness of  this  kind  of  fame  and  greatness  has  been 
set  forth  by  all  great  thinkers  and  by  the  poets  of 
real  insight  into  life  who  could  not  yet  set  aside 
their  own  desire  for  greatness.  For  after  all,  great- 
ness is  inherent  in  the  idea  of  the  full  development 
of  every  man.  Greatness  truly  conceived  must  be 
democratized  and  universalized.  It  must  be  pos- 
sible for  every  man  who  strives  for  the  mastery 
to  win  the  prize. 

Jesus  points  the  way  through  which  alone  any 
may  become  great  and  at  the  same  time  the  way 
in  which  the  attainment  of  greatness  is  open  to  all 
men  and  may  become  their  common  possession. 
He  points  the  goal  of  the  highest  ambition  in  the  law 
of  service.  This  ambition  He  proclaims  as  the  chief 
end  of  His  Own  Mission.  He  Himself  came  not  to 
exploit  but  to  serve — "Not  to  be  ministered  unto 
but  to  minister."  He  defines  true  greatness  and 
universalizes  it  in  one  sentence  "He  that  would 
be  greatest  among  you,  let  him  be  the  servant  of  all." 
Thus  ambition  is  not  destroyed  but  directed  to  the 
only  true  goal. 


254    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

In  solving  the  problem  of  human  existence  Jesus 
also  interprets  the  meaning  of  the  physical  universe. 
It  is  the  Father's  house  of  many  mansions.  The 
stars,  the  suns,  and  their  encircling  universes  of 
planets  are  the  eternal  dwelling  places  of  the  Spirits 
and  serve  the  ends  of  spiritual  beings.  By  this 
thought  the  whole  bulk  of  physical  matter  is  sacra- 
mentalized — becomes  sacred.  The  material  uni- 
verses already  obey  the  rule  of  God  in  the  only  way 
which  impersonal  objects  can,  through  obedience 
to  the  reign  of  law.  Eternal  spiritual  beings  like 
men  cannot  thus  be  ruled  by  external  compulsion 
but  through  moral  influence.  When  men  have 
come  voluntarily  to  find  their  places  in  the  Home 
and  Family  of  God  and  shall  have  established  the 
universal  Reign  of  God  in  their  own  lives  and  in 
the  lives  of  the  Universal  Community  they  will  then 
find  themselves  at  home  in  the  splendid  material 
universe  the  only  worthy  House  of  God  which  even 
so  cannot  contain  Him.  But  what  material  uni- 
verses cannot  do,  any  individual  man  may  be  able 
to  do — contain  the  whole  life  of  God  within  himself. 
This  is  the  ultimate  goal  of  human  individuals  and 
till  it  has  been  reached  and  the  Kingdom  established 
on  earth,  we  may  not  cease  to  pray — 

Thy  Kingdom  Come,  Thy  Will  Be  Done  On  Earth  As 
It  Is  In  Heaven.     Amen,  So  Be  It,  Lord. 

X 

In  the  present  crisis  humanity  again  stands  at  the 
parting  of  the  ways.     Once  again  the  Eternal  Al- 


Recovery  of  a  Lost  Christianity  255 

ternative  presents  itself  afresh,  False  Messiahs 
have  come  claiming  to  be  the  Lord's  Chosen  and 
Anointed  Ones  and  have  indeed  deceived  the  very- 
elect,  who  have  fallen  down  and  worshipped  the 
Devil  who  promised  them  all  the  kingdoms  of  the 
earth  as  a  reward  for  submission.  The  diabolical 
instruments  of  fomented  hatreds,  fair  and  lying 
words,  broken  faith,  collective  assassinations  have 
been  invoked  in  behalf  of  a  world  Kultur  based 
upon  force.  The  bribe  which  the  true  Messiah 
spurned  on  the  Mount  of  Temptation  has  been 
eagerly  embraced  by  those  who  claimed  the  Divine 
right  through  God's  grace  to  shatter  the  nations 
and  shepherd  them  with  the  iron  flail  of  a  tribal 
demi-god.  The  Judas  bribe  has  increased  from 
thirty  silver  pieces  to  no  less  than  the  world  itself. 

For  centuries  self-styled  Christians  have  been 
carrying  on  a  side  enterprise  in  exploitation.  Now 
the  issue  has  been  brought  to  its  logical  culmination 
and  attained  cosmic  proportions.  The  world  is 
reaping  the  fruits  of  the  leadership  of  false  Messiahs. 
Satan  is  paying  back  the  harvest  of  tares.  The 
hour  of  the  Kingdom  has  again  struck.  Will  man- 
kind repudiate  its  false  Messiahs,  its  demi-gods,  its 
mammons?  Will  it  heed  the  Message  of  the  true 
Messiah,  the  Son  of  Man? 

Jesus  preached  but  one  sermon — He  had  but  one 
theme — the  Kingdom  of  God, — the  way  and  the 
means  of  its  coming.  His  followers  to-day  should 
take  up  and  echo  that  strain  till  it  reverberate  in 
the  thundertones  of  a  great  multitude  of  prophetic 


256    Religion:  Its  Prophets  and  False  Prophets 

messengers — "  Repent  ye,  for  the  reign  of  God  is 
at  hand . "  "  Repent ' ' — that  is — ' '  Get  a  new  mind ; ' ' 
"Get  a  new  insight  into  the  real  meaning  of  life  and 
reorganize  your  own  life  in  union  with  it" — "See 
world  history  in  the  light  of  the  Will  and  Plan  of 
God  and  set  your  own  will  in  co-operation  with 
His." 

Let  Omar  and  his  cult  turn  from  the  mournful 
plaint — 

Ah  Love,  could  you  and  I  with  Him  conspire, 
To  grasp  this  sorry  Scheme  of  Things  entire — 
Would  not  we  shatter  it  to  bits — and  then 
Remould  it  nearer  to  the  Heart's  Desire? 

and  let  the  men  of  this  generation  arise — and  now 
if  the  shattering  process  has  gone  far  enough, — 
let  collective  humanity  under  God  remould  "the 
scheme  of  things  entire"  nearer  to  the  desire  of  the 
battered,  bleeding,  broken  hearts  of  the  sons  and 
daughters  of  men — nearer  to  the  heart  of  the  suf- 
fering Son  of  Man — nearer  to  the  Heart  and  Mind 
of  the  Universal  God  and  Father  of  all  souls. 


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The  Church  and  the  Man 


By  DONALD  HANKEY 

Author  of  "A  Student  in  Arms." 

i6tno,  $  .60 

This  little  volume  deals  with  the  average  man  in  his 
attitude  toward  religion.  It  is  concerned  only  with  the 
essentials,  viewing  these  with  the  same  sympathy  and 
charity  and  understanding  that  have  made  A  Student 
in  Arms  one  of  the  most  widely  discussed  volumes  of 
the  day. 

There  is  an  introduction  by  C.H.S.  Mathews  in  which 
Mr.  Hankey's  life  is  briefly  reviewed. 

"Hankey  thought  clearly  and  boldly.  He  is  convinc- 
ing because  he  is  always  as  sane  as  he  is  sincere." — Post- 
Standard. 

"Its  discussion  of  the  excuses  that  men  give  for  not 
identifying  themselves  with  the  church  is  revealing  and 
practical." — Christian  Century. 

"This  book  is  a  bold,  honest  criticism  of  the  formal 
Christianity  of  our  day  by  a  man  who  was  really  in 
earnest,  who  faced  death  bravely  as  he  had  faced  life 
sincerely,  and  who  by  his  final  sacrifice  proved  his  readi- 
ness to  live  and  die  for  a  great  cause." — Post  Express. 


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Religion  in  a 
World  at  War 


By  GEORGE  HODGES,  Dean  of  the  Episcopal 
Theological  School,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts. 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.00 


Genuine  comfort  and  inspiration  for  the  sincere  be- 
liever are  contained  in  this  new  work  by  Dean  Hodges. 
Its  central  thought  is  summed  up  in  the  following 
passage: 

"The  idea  that  faith  has  entered  now  into  an  un- 
precedented peril,  and  that  belief  in  the  power  and 
goodness  of  God  must  perish  from  the  creeds  of  men, 
can  be  held  only  by  those  who  are  unacquainted  with 
history." 

The  scope  of  the  book,  rising  from  the  considera- 
tion of  the  world's  bitter  ordeal  to  a  sublime  conception 
of  the  Christian  religion  as  the  living  manifestation  of 
righteousness,  is  suggested  by  the  chapter  headings: 
In  the  Storm  of  War.  Easter  in  a  World  at  War. 
Memorial  Day  in  a  World  at  War.  All  Saints'  Day 
in  a  World  at  War.  Christmas  in  a  World  at  War. 
God  and  the  World's  Pain.  Pain  and  the  World's 
Progress.  The  Everlasting  Vitality  of  the  Christian 
Religion. 


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A  Theology  for  the 
Social  Gospel 


By  WALTER  RAUSCHENBUSCH 

Author  of  "  Christianity  and  the  Social  Crisis  "  and 
"  Christianizing  the  Social  Order." 


Cloth,  i2mo,  $1.50 

This  book,  which  embodies  the  Taylor  Lectures  given 
at  Yale  during  Convocation  Week  in  April,  1917,  takes 
up  the  old  doctrines  of  the  Christian  faith,  such  as 
Original  Sin,  The  Atonement,  Inspiration,  The  Sacra- 
ments, and  shows  how  they  can  be  re-interpreted  from 
a  modern  social  point  of  view  and  expanded  in  their 
scope  so  that  they  will  make  room  for  the  salvation  of 
society  as  well  as  for  the  salvation  of  individuals.  The 
work  is  practical  and  inspiring  and  covers  ground  not 
previously  traversed  by  writers. 


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mmor 


An  essay  in  discovery,  coordinating  scientific,  psychical 
and  biblical  research. 

Edited  by  Canon  Streeter  and  written  by  A.  Clut- 
ton  Brock,  B.  H.  Streeter,  Dr.  J.  Hatfield,  C.  W. 
Emmett  and  E.  W.  Barnes. 

Cloth,  8vo,  $2.25 

Among  the  main  topics  which  this  work  takes  up  are 
the  following:  Certain  Current  Objections  to  a  Belief 
in  Immortality;  The  Grounds  of  Immortality;  The 
Resurrection  of  the  Body;  Heaven;  Re-Incarnation  and 
Karma  As  Taught  by  Modern  Theosophists ;  Communi- 
cation with  the  Dead;  Can  Mind  Survive  the  Destruc- 
tion of  the  Brain;  What  Happens  to  the  Sinner  After 
Death,  and  The  Communion  of  Saints.  The  volume, 
which  has  the  same  editorship  as  Concerning  Prayer,  is 
an  important  addition  of  permanent  value  to  religious 
literature. 


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Church  Principles  For  Lay  People 

Each  Volume,  Cloth,  i2mo,  #1.00. 

Church  Principles  for  Lay  People  is  a  series  of  books  on  the 
Church,  Religion,  Ethics  and  subjects  of  kindred  interest. 
The  first  two  volumes,  Hodges'  "Episcopal  Church"  and 
Slattery's  "Why  Men  Pray,"  are  published  in  a  special 
uniform  binding,  12 mo,  decorated  cloth.  The  text  of  previous 
editions  is  unaltered.  Other  volumes  in  preparation  will  be 
announced  from  time  to  time  as  they  are  added. 


The  Episcopal  Church:  Its  Faith  and  Order 

By  George  Hodges,  Dean  of  the  Episcopal  Theological  School, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 

"The  author  writes  for  humanity,  and  no  better  book  for  religious  study,  for  clergy, 
laity,  and  for  the  younger  members  of  the  churches  has  appeared  in  some  time." 
Review  of  Reviews. 

Why  Men  Pray 

By  Charles  Lewis  Slattery,  D.D.,  Rector  of  Grace  Church  in 

New  York. 

"Truths  defined  and  illustrated  with  a  simplicity  and  earnestness  which  make  them 
vital  and  real." — Tlie  Living  Age. 


The  Apostles'  Creed  Today 

By  Professor  Edward  S.  Drown,  D.D.,  of  the  Episcopal  Theo- 
logical School  in  Cambridge. 
The  book  is  convincingly  written  in  non-technical  language,  and  is  very  well  adapted 

for  the  use  of  classes  of  young  men  and  women  at  the  critical  sceptical  age. 


The  Christian  Ministry  and  Social  Problems 

By  Charles  D.Williams,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Protestant  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  Michigan,  Author  of  "A  Valid  Christianity  for 
Today." 

"The  little  book  has  been  written,"  Bishop  Williams  says,  "with  the  modest  hope 
that  in  an  occasional  instance  it  may  serve  as  a  slight  irritant,  a  kind  of  mild  Spanish- 
fly  blister,  to  the  somewhat  torpid  social  conscience  of  the  average  minister  of  the 
church." 


The  Church  and  Missionary  Service 
By  Bishop  Charles  H.  Brent,  Preparing 


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Date  Due 


